Luffy's Guardian Angel
by Ang3l S0ng
Summary: The war had been long and draining, they could all use a miracle right about now. What if that miracle came in the form of a young marine girl? A mysterious girl that no one knows dies saving Luffy's brother, but just because she's dead doesn't mean she's gone. (In which Ace is saved and Brook is no longer Luffy's only undead crewmember.)
1. Why Marine Girl?

**Hi Guys! This is a plot bunny that has been hopping around my head for a while and I needed to get it out. I have a vague idea of where this might go and it's a bit of a change from the ocean falling into one piece thing, which I really like to write. Speaking of which I have tworry other stories on the go that I haven't posted yet, but I will when I write a few more chapters of each so I'm a bit ahead. But anyways please enjoy this story, I know the first chapter is never much to go on but feel free to let me know what you think!**

Luffy's Guardian Angel

Chapter 1

Why? Marine Girl…

Smoked filled her lungs, burning her throat and causing her eyes to sting. Her rifle felt heavy in her hands, like every round she hadn't fired yet weighed tons. She quickly ducked behind a pile of rubble dodging oncoming bullets. Her hands shook and her head was pounding. Why? Why? WHY!? She squeezed her eyes shut with a childish hope that maybe when she opened them… she wouldn't be here. She wouldn't be in the middle of Marineford, fighting for a cause that she was starting to question. They were the marines. It was their job to get rid of pirates. Pirates were bad, marines were good. Why couldn't it be that simple? But it wasn't and it wasn't ever going to be. That's why she was confused.

An explosion went off nearby, almost blowing her ear drum and showering her with ash.

She looked over her shoulder scanning the area. This didn't feel right. She should be worried shouldn't she? Portgas D. Ace had been freed by his brother Monkey D. Luffy. She should be angry. But she wasn't. When she watched Straw Hat reach the execution platform and free his brother she felt… relieved. So completely happy that she almost cheered. But that was wrong. Fire Fist was a pirate. Pirates were bad. But…

What if they weren't? What had Fire Fist done to deserve death? Sail? Not followed every single outrageous rule the government set? If not, then what? Being born? Living? That wasn't a crime justifiable by death!

Was she fighting for the wrong side?

She bit her lip and stood. Running back into the chaos, dodging and maiming but never killing.

These pirates were risking everything for one man. Straw Hat was fighting to the death to get his brother out alive. What was she fighting for? Their goal seemed so clear, so just. Why couldn't hers? She had to know. She had to get to Straw Hat. She had to know how he did it. How he knew what to fight for so clearly that it was as if it was written everywhere he looked. A constant reminder.

She didn't even know what it was that she lived for anymore.

So she ran, never once looking away from the duo of brothers that fought together like a well- oiled machine. Then Akainu showed up. Just when she thought that they'd get away, Ace turned and launched himself towards the admiral in a blind rage that caused her heart to cease. No no no no no no no no! They had been so close! You idiot! She pumped her legs faster running so fast she thought her lungs would burst.

Straw Hat desperately called to his brother, begging for him to run. But… he dropped to his knees his body unable to push any further. Her eyes widened. NO!

Akainu noticed Luffy's sudden weakness and turned on him with a smirk. Ace ran, yelling Luffy's name. Akainu pulled his fist back and Ace was just about to slide in front to take the blow. To protect his family.

But she was faster.

She slammed into Ace's side throwing him a good distance away. He was on his knees in seconds hoping that his brother was okay. Hoping he was still alive. What Ace saw was not what he expected. Silence seemed to fill the battle field, everyone nearby who witnessed what had just happened froze. Pirates and Marines alike.

Ace gaped. This… there… why?

Luffy looked up from his brothers vivre card. Eyes filled with horror and heart completely still. His brain worked too quickly telling his eyes that he should be seeing his brother, impaled through the chest with a fist of lava. But when his senses caught up with him, that wasn't what he was seeing. It wasn't his brother. It was a girl. A young girl with long black hair, and wide pain filled blue eyes that seemed to be staring at nothing.

Akainu raised his brow and scowled, pulling his fist back, sliding it out of the girl's stomach with a disgusting squelching sound that was accompanied by a small hiss. The girl dropped to her knees and slumped forwards into Luffy who was too stunned to move. Her chin came to rest on his shoulder and he subconsciously wrapped an arm around her waist and his hand came to the back of her head, holding her up. He watched silently as his brother ran over to him, but he couldn't hear his yells. All Luffy could hear was the ragged breathing of the dying girl in his arms.

The dying girl that had just saved his and his brother's lives.

Blood dripped down the girl's back, staining her previously white uniform, and coating Luffy's forearm in the warm liquid. The boy tried not to pay attention to that, trying to ignore the urge to wince at the amount of it there was.

Marco snapped out of his shock and growled, launching himself at Akainu as he made to attack the three again. With the help of his crewmates and Jimbei they managed to push Akainu back. That had been way too close.

Luffy turned his head slightly towards the girl. "Why…?" He whispered unable to make his voice go any louder. He felt the girl shake and he tensed before realizing she was laughing. A pained, desperate laugh but a laugh nonetheless. He vaguely heard Ace scream for a doctor.

"I've been following your adventures for a while now… everything you've done…" She coughed and blood splattered on the ground behind him. "Every fight you've been in… was to help someone, right?"

Luffy could only listen, unsure of where this was coming from. He didn't know this person. Why would she give up her life to save him and Ace? He didn't understand, so he asked again a little more firmly. "Why?"

"I've been asking myself that since this battle started." Her voice was growing weaker, Luffy could tell that she didn't have much time left. "Monkey D. Luffy, future pirate king. How do you know what's worth fighting for?" She asked quietly and suddenly she went limp, Luffy tightened his hold on her, now having to support all of her weight.

Ace dropped a hand on his brother's shoulder which caused the younger to look over at him. "We have to go Luffy."

Luffy moved to stand, the girl still clutched in his arms, but he found that he couldn't. His body had been pushed too far past its limits. Ace seeing his struggles pulled the girl from his arms and laid her on the ground, then picked his brother up with ease and carried him on his back. Just as he turned to run Luffy stopped him with a shout. Ace looked at him in confusion and Luffy stared back with an unwavering gaze. "I'm not going to leave her here."

Ace looked over at the girl who saved his life. Her body soaked in blood but her face was at peace, as if she were sleeping. He gave a single nod before scooping her body up in his arms, relying on Luffy to hold on tightly so he wouldn't fall.

Then he ran full tilt back to the whitebeard ship.

**Well that's all for now! I know it's short, the first couple chapters will be but depending on reviews they'll get longer:) **

**Hope you enjoyed! **

**-Ang3l **


	2. Aftermath

**Hey everyone! Here's another chapter! I was pleasantly surprised at the good response I was getting with this story, I'm so glad you guys seem to like it. So I guess it was a good thing I posted this then. Well I hope you enjoy this chapter (It's kind of a filler though).**

Chapter 2

Aftermath

Ace sighed in annoyance as yet another bandage was applied to him. He barely had any skin left to show and for a man who almost never wore a shirt, it wasn't the least bit comfortable. As the crew's doctor continued to work, Ace turned slightly to look at the two beds in the room. Both held a figure each.

The one closest to him held his little brother, who was currently unconscious. A small smile spread across Ace's face. He was so proud of his brother, of how strong he had gotten. While he'd never tell Luffy any of this, he loved him. Luffy never gave up on him, ever. He showed Ace that it was okay for him to live, finally giving an answer to the question he had asked for so long. Luffy had stormed into Impel Down and Marineford, demanding that they give him back his brother, and he didn't let anything stand in his way. Not the marines, not his own health, not anything.

Ace's eyes traveled down the sleeping boys form, coming to rest on the multiple layers of gauze that circled his chest, and all the medical equipment and beeping machines that were keeping him alive. Ace's smile dwindled to a frown.

He had been so close to losing his little brother. They had been so close to arriving safely at the ship, so close to being free again, when Akainu slipped past Marco and Jinbei's barrage of attacks. He had been able to get one hit in before he was once again overwhelmed with attacks from Ace's brothers. But one hit was enough. Luffy had been thrown off his back, his chest seared and burnt. His brother was unconscious before he hit the ground. The panic that had risen in him and the agonizing pain that filled him, was not only from the burn that now blistered and swelled across his back but the thought that he had just lost his brother. His treasure.

Ace shook his head trying to shake the thoughts away. They had made it. Luffy was still alive and while Law had told him he wasn't in the clear just yet, Ace had every belief that his brother was going to be fine.

Ace's attention was brought back to the doctor when he stood and nodded to him, silently letting him know that he had finished. The doctor left to treat other crew member's wounds.

The fire user pulled his chair back to the side of Luffy's bed, where it had been for the past twenty four hours since they left the battlefield. As Ace had been by his little brother's side the whole time, he had not heard any news of the outcome of the war. His crew was working on fixing everyone up and figuring out who was lost in the fight.

Gently taking Luffy's rubbery hand in his own, Ace's eyes drifted to the bed on the other side of his brother's. Laying in the bed was the marine girl that had saved his life. Her body ridged and still, pale and cold. Normally any doctor would never keep a patient in the same room with a dead body, however due to the lack of space everywhere else they didn't really have a choice.

Ace took in the face of the young girl, who looked about the same age as Luffy. She was very beautiful in a childlike sort of way. She looked to be in good shape and was well developed… Ace cringed at the course his thoughts were taking. It was just weird to be thinking of a corpse like that. But the girl did intrigue him. She was strong, if how far she had been able to shove him was any indication, and she was young and healthy. So why would she, a marine, throw her life away for a couple of pirates? One of which her side tried to execute. He just couldn't rap his mind around it. He was hoping when he woke up, Luffy could shed some light on the mysterious girl. Ace had no idea what she had said too his younger sibling.

Despite no one on the whitebeard crew having any idea who the girl was, they planned on giving her the burial that she deserved. She had saved Ace after all.

Her body had yet to be cleaned up for the burial but Ace was sure someone would do it soon.

The eldest brother leant against the back of his chair carefully trying not to agitate his burn which still ached with a pain that would make any weaker man scream and cry. Ace's eyes slid shut easily and he let his body relax, falling into a deep dreamless sleep.

Two weeks later, the Whitebeard crew was just starting to get situated again. They had a large ceremony for the ones they had lost and were sailing on to find an island to rest at. A lot of them needed to get off the ship for a while.

Luffy had woken up not even a day ago, much to Ace's delight. He was in rough shape and was bed ridden but had enough energy to smile as bright as he always did.

Ace had asked Luffy about the mystery girl that saved them but Luffy knew about as much as the rest of them.

Another two weeks passed and Luffy was up on his feet. He had been ordered strictly to take things slow and easy but Luffy was too happy to finally be out of that bed to really care.

One night, however, Luffy found that he couldn't sleep and he decided to go and walk along the beach at the abandoned island they were docked at. The boy's mind kept travelling back to that moment when he held the dying girl in his arms. The way she laughed despite knowing there was no way she was going to survive. Just that fact was enough to tell that she was strong, so why would she throw her life away?

What really haunted his mind, what was keeping him up with its relentless repetition in his head, was her question.

_How do you know what__'__s worth fighting for?_

As he wiggled his toes in the sand that spilled over onto his sandals, he thought about the question. The girl (it struck him that he hadn't even known her name) had used her dying breath to ask him. It had to have been important to her.

And she died not knowing the answer.

Luffy inhaled deeply through his nose, taking in the salty sea air. He frowned slightly, there was something else, mixed into the smell. Something oddly familiar but also so pure and intoxicating. It smelled like… roses.

Luffy looked around him, inspecting the tree line for the patch of roses that he knew would have to be there for the sent to be so strong. But there were none of the thorny red plants. Shrugging, the boy made his way back to the ship but instead of boarding he made his way up the beach and took a spot under a palm tree. It was a nice night and despite the fact that the Whitebeard's crew's doctor would have a cow if they caught him, he nestled down with his arms behind his head drifting off, the sweet smell of roses filling his senses and lulling him to sleep.

**There you have it! Again, the chapters will get longer. The next one is also pretty short, but I promise that chapter 4 will be a regular sized chapter (anywhere from 3,000-5,000 words). These chapters are really just setting the basis for the story. If you have any constructive criticism****then I'd be happy to hear it, also if it seems like I'm not portraying any of the characters correctly, I am sorry for that. As an author writing about someone else's characters, its kind of a big worry for me.**

**Until next time!**

**-Ang3l**


	3. Strange Things

**And here's another one! Please enjoy:)**

Chapter 3

Strange Things

A month later the world was still trying too recover from the effects of the war. The Whitebeard crew were mourning the loss of their captain and father, they had erected a large grave for him on an island in the New World. They had also given the marine girl a proper burial right beside Whitebeard. Despite their crews great loss they set out almost immediately to check on the islands they laid claim over. Marco had become acting Captain and Ace had moved up to first division comander to fill his previous position.

When Ace had been able to stop and just think, without worrying for his brothers health or helping Marco keep the crew in order, the sheer weight of the war took its toll on him. He spent hours alone crying and sobbing for his father figure, the man that had accepted him into his family with open arms, regardless of his lineage. It would take Ace along time to recover from this, but he wouldn't be alone. He was on a ship full of people going through the exact same thing.

They had dropped Luffy off on an island close to Amazon Lily, much to Ace's dislike. He wanted his brother to stay with him, at least until they could get him back to his crew. But Luffy insisted. "I'm not strong enough Ace." His little brother had said in a serious tone. "I almost lost you. Rayleigh wants me too meet with him, I'm hoping he'll train me." Luffy wasn't that serious very often, so Ace knew immediatly there was no way he could convince the boy to stay.

When Luffy had been dropped off, Rayleigh was there waiting for him. He had asked Luffy what he wanted to do. Luffy told him that he knew he wasn't ready for the New World. The war had been their victory because of one brave girl that, despite having passed away, had become almost an idol to Luffy. He knew next to nothing about her, he didn't understand her actions but he and Ace owed their lives to her. Luffy was determined to not let her sacrifice be for nothing.

However, Luffy needed time to get strong, meaning he'd have to put off pirating for a while, and while he so badly wanted to see his nakama, he knew this was the right thing to do. He needed to tell his crew, and with Rayleigh and Jimbei's help, he returned to Marineford.

Six months later, Rayleigh left Luffy on his own to continue his training. He had originally planned to return to Sabaody to await the return of the Straw Hat pirates and continue his job, however something unexpected came up and he now found himself heading towards a new destination. He needed to speak with the first division commander of the Whitebeard pirates.

Ace had not expected to get a visitor, let alone the man who was supposed to be watching over his brother. So when Marco called him up on deck and he saw Rayleigh he was confused at first. Then he was very worried. "Where's Luffy? Is he okay?" He asked hurridly. The crew gathered around, wanting to hear what was being said.

Rayleigh put up a hand to calm Ace. "He is fine, physically. However, I am worried for his mental state."

Now Ace was extremely confused. "What do you mean?" Ace worried for Luffy's mentality as well sometimes but Luffy was an idiot by nature. What could be so wrong that it warranted Rayleigh to come this far out of his way to tell him.

"I believe that the death of the Marine girl has had a bigger impact on him then we thought." Rayleigh explained carefully. The man had seen a lot in his life time, but he was worried for Luffy's sanity. He seemed almost... obsessed with the girl who died in his arms. Rayleigh thought back to a few weeks ago, when he first noticed something wasn't right.

_It was one of the first few nights, staying out in the wilderness. Luffy and Rayleigh had started a good sized fire in their camp and were currently enjoying a freshly cooked bear. Rayleigh couldn__'__t help but smile fondly as he listened to Luffy talk about his adventures, in between bites of meat. The boy reminded him so much of his late captain, it brought on a feeling of nostalgia to him. _

_Luffy, who had been mid-sentence of describing this one time his crew had lost their memories, suddenly quieted. A look of confusion crossed his features and Rayleigh could only raise a questioning brow as the boy began looking around at the forest surrounding them. As a precaution, the Dark King, sent out a wave of observation haki. When he could not sense anything of danger, he frowned slightly at the young man across from him. _

_"__What__'__s wrong, Luffy?__" __He asked, watching the boy take a long sniff of the meat in his hand, before frowning and continuing to look around. _

_"__You don__'__t smell that?__" __Luffy asked, getting up and walking over to stand beside Rayleigh, trying to see if he could smell it over there too. Sure enough, the scent was just as strong. _

_Rayleigh, curious about Luffy__'__s actions, gave him his undivided attention. __"__Smell what?__"_

_Luffy took a sniff of the air. __"__Roses.__"_

_Rayleigh shook his head, taking a deep breath himself. He didn__'__t smell anything close to the scent of roses. The younger of the two, took one last look around before shrugging and chalking it up to a mystery thing. The incident went unmentioned for a few days, however it was always in the back of Rayleigh__'__s mind. Most people would have forgotten it had even occurred by now, but Rayleigh new that this was the Grand Line and you never ignore anything, despite how small and unimportant it may seem at the time. Ignorance was how people got themselves killed._

_So when Luffy began acting strange again, Rayleigh paid close attention. They were in the middle of training observation haki and Rayleigh decided to give Luffy a break from the hours of being smacked over the head. Instead, he gave him a much simpler task. _

_Raleigh left Luffy standing in the middle of a large clearing blindfolded and gave him one instruction, find him. He then used his years of experience to sneak away silently and make himself comfortable hidden in the branches of a tree nearby. He watched in amusement as Luffy wandered around the clearing waving his hands in front of him. The boy stopped and pouted. He then took a deep breath and relaxed. Rayleigh was proud to see Luffy trying to use his haki, but before the younger could begin to move again, he suddenly stumbled forward. _

_Luffy waved his arms around, trying to regain his balance and when he did he turned around and crossed his arms in what Rayleigh would assume was annoyance. __"__I thought you were supposed to let me find you?__" __Luffy suddenly said, before reaching up and pulling the blindfold down around his neck. Rayleigh could see Luffy__'__s eyes widen in shock and his body become stiff. The pirate king__'__s right hand frowned, obviously not seeing whatever it was that Luffy was seeing._

_Quickly, Luffy brought his fists to his eyes and rubbed them. When he dropped his hands, whatever it was that he saw must have been gone, because Luffy began looking frantically around the empty clearing. Rayleigh watched silently as the boy took a few moment to calm down again, before putting on his blindfold once more and set to work trying to find him. _

Things had just continued to escalate after that. Luffy would just randomly bolt off into the forest during training sessions, yelling for an unseen person to stop and wait up. But then the talk about the marine girl started up as well. Luffy would talk about her constantly and yet never really tell him anything. Just going on about how brave and nice she was for saving him and his brother, or how she was really pretty (which Rayleigh was shocked to hear considering Luffy never seemed to show interest in any women, even the pirate empress who practically threw herself at him). But what concerned him the most was that, Luffy talked about her like she was still alive.

He even went so far as to say that he wanted her to join his crew, not even a few days ago.

And after Rayleigh explained all this, Ace was just as confused. That didn't sound like his brother at all. He had never heard Luffy every complement a girls looks before, let alone talk to thin air. What the heck was going on with his brother? Did having to watch that girl die in his arms cause him some kind of mental trauma that was causing him to hallucinate?

Of course, the rest of the crew had to throw in their two cents.

"Maybe he has an invisible friend!"

"Maybe the marine girl's spirit came back from the dead and is haunting Straw Hat!"

"Please, don't be ridiculous. There's no such thing as ghosts."

Ace groaned and rubbed his temples. There really wasn't much he could do about the situation. Besides, it didn't sound like Luffy was in any danger. Maybe it was just that, maybe his little brother conjured up an invisible friend to keep him company for a year and a half. Ace had to trust that Luffy could handle himself.

He would see how his brother was doing when they go to see him and his crew off in Sabaody. Until then, he would let Luffy train in peace.

**There you have it, and if you're wondering, I'll be updating Falling Into Place next and then Sail's in the Sky. Thanks for reading!**

**Until next time!**

**-Ang3l**


	4. A Name

**Okay! So I'm back! YAY! First of all, this is not the story I had planned on updating first, I was going to update Falling Apart because its on its last chapter before the next book but the file didn't save properly on my computer and I now have to rewrite the whole thing... so I'm sorry to Quirkykit because I promised you I would update that but I didn't... I'm very sorry!**

** The next thing is exams. I'm right in the middle of them and I've got two more to write before I can officially call it summer vacation. I WILL UPDATE LOTS DURING THE SUMMER! Especially Sail's in the Sky (I feel like I'm neglecting that poor story). So I think that's pretty much all I wanted to say.**

**I hope you like this chapter!**

Chapter 4

A Name

It started off as little things. Like the ever present scent of roses despite Luffy never being able to find the source, or how when Luffy was alone or on a run he didn't feel completely alone. It wasn't a bad feeling, that mysterious presence, it was… comforting but confusing.

It wasn't until the day he was training observation haki that he really felt like he was going crazy. He had been told to try and find Rayleigh while blind folded. It had taken him a moment to realize that wandering around randomly wasn't going to work so he had stopped and started to concentrate.

That's when someone pushed him.

He felt it as clear as day, a hand suddenly present in between his shoulder blades, pushing him forwards almost teasingly. It had startled him and Luffy had stumbled, thrown off balance by the unexpected action.

Luffy had frowned and turned around, complaining to Rayleigh about not following his own rules for the training exercise but his words caught in his throat. When he pulled off his blindfold… there she stood.

Her long black hair flowing around her shoulders, wide wonderful blue eyes full of curiosity. The last time he saw those eyes they were full of pain. She was wearing the plain white dress that the Whitebeards had buried her in and she certainly did not look dead. Her skin was tanned and healthy, her chest rising and falling gently with her breathes, even her very presences felt warm and inviting. Luffy lost the ability to breathe. There was no way she was here, she had died. Luffy had held her while she died.

Luffy rubbed his eyes and just like that, she was gone. He spun around but there was no sight of her. Had he actually seen that or was he going mad? No… he must be crazy.

But it kept happening. He would only catch glimpses of her, behind a tree or on the beach. Only for a second and then he'd blink and she'd be gone.

He found himself actually looking for her. He would focus on his training of course but he always kept a part of his attention on his surroundings, waiting for a glimpse of that long black hair or those crystal blue eyes.

It felt almost like a game to Luffy. The closest he had gotten to her, he had seen her during a lesson from Rayleigh and he immediately called out to her, yelling for her to wait. He wanted to talk to her. He wanted to know her name. So he ran after her, ignoring Rayleigh's questioning gaze as he disappeared into the forest.

After a few minutes of running, Luffy slowed to a stop figuring that he had lost her. He grinned and turned to head back to Rayleigh not discouraged in the least, he'd get her next time for sure. But it looked like he wouldn't have to wait.

He didn't even get to take a step before the marine girl poked her head out from behind a large tree. Luffy froze and didn't dare blink. He didn't want her to disappear again. The girl looked at him hesitantly before carefully stepping out from behind the tree. They stood mere feet from each other. They continued to stare at each other until the silence and lack of movement became too much and Luffy just had to ask "Are you a zombie?"

The question seemed to take the girl off guard and it took her a moment to process what he had said. She looked down at herself, folding her hands behind her back, then looked back at him and shrugged with a soft frown. Luffy realized she seemed just as confused as he was. So he decided to start with something that he had been wanting to do since he first saw her.

"Thank you." Luffy said, sincerity clear in his voice. "Thank you for saving us."

The girl tilted her head, and smiled. Her eyes brightening even more then Luffy thought possible.

Luffy looked at her, really looked at her. From her bare feet to her pink lips, she looked like any other living person. "I…" He hesitated for a moment. "I watched you die. How are you alive?"

The girl shrugged once more.

"Can't you talk?"

She shook her head.

Luffy frowned. If she couldn't talk then how will he learn anything about her? Clapping his fist into his hand in realization, Luffy grinned at his soon to be new friend. "I'll just ask yes or no questions." The girl smiled and nodded.

"Yosh!" Luffy thought hard about what question he wanted to ask first. "Are you a ghost?" It was hard to tell, a zombie would have been more likely. She didn't look like how the ghosts he'd heard about in stories were described. No pale white skin, no floating, and she was most certainly not see through. But if she wasn't a zombie, what else could she be?

She pursed her lips and looked up, trying to find an appropriate answer to his question. Rather than nodding or shaking her head she walked closer to Luffy. When she stood right in front of him, Luffy couldn't help noticing that he was just a bit taller than her. She raised her hand and it hovered just over his chest.

She seemed to pause there, taking in his still healing scar. The wound had been a nasty one and it was jagged and very painful looking. Slowly she brought her hand to rest on his chest but rather than stopping at his skin, her hand passed right through him. Luffy gasped at the strange feeling and she pulled back quickly, worried that she had hurt him somehow. Luffy smiled at her in reassurance and she relaxed.

"So you are a ghost then!" He exclaimed.

She gave a tentative nod. Honestly, she didn't know what she was. When she had died her world had turned black. There were no feelings, no thoughts, no emotions. There was just nothing. So it was strange to her when she suddenly felt like something was pulling her, dragging her away from the darkness. Like something had tied itself around her heart and was reeling her in.

When she opened her eyes (something she thought she'd never do again) she was on some beach at night, standing next to Straw Hat Luffy who was staring out at the sea. She had been happy and scared and confused. She couldn't feel the sand beneath her feet or the breeze that ruffled Straw Hat's hair. She didn't feel warm or cold, just… numb.

She had tried to call out to him, wanting to ask how she got here, what was going on, but she couldn't speak. Her lips would move but no words would come out. He couldn't even see her.

When they had set sail from that island she hadn't boarded the ship. She stayed on the beach and watched the whitebeard ship sail off. Somewhere deep inside she knew that she was dead and that somehow she was stuck in this world, invisible.

The ship hadn't even gotten out of swimming distance from the island when her head suddenly spun and blackness clouded her vision. The sensation lasted only but a second however when it cleared, she was on the deck of the Moby Dick. It took her a moment to orient herself. Monkey D. Luffy was once again right beside her.

She had tried many times to explore the ship due to boredom but every time she traveled a certain distance she would get dizzy and find herself back at Luffy's side. After multiple tries she managed to figure out that if she went further than 50 feet in any direction from the pirate, she would snap back to him. At first this pissed her off but then she realized it wasn't so bad. Luffy liked to explore too so he was constantly moving around the ship whenever Ace would let him.

And there were worse people to get stuck with. But why was she stuck to him in the first place? Was it because he held her while she died? They didn't know anything about each other. Well, she knew what she read from newspapers. While most of that information was corrupted by the biased views of the Marines, she could easily pick out the truths from it.

For instance, the rumors of how the Straw Hat pirates kidnapped the princess of Alabasta and then how not long after Crocodile was taken into custody. How was she not to believe that Luffy and his crew had become friends with the princess and helped her save her country?

Then there was Enies Lobby. It was obvious why they burned that flag down. The world stole a friend of theirs and they were taking her back.

People always called her a dreamer. They teased her around the marine base about always finding the best in people even if it wasn't there. But that's not true, she saw what other people ignored. That's the only difference.

So while she knew next to nothing about Luffy, she was learning.

She learned how close he and his brother were by watching their interactions and the fondness they held for each other. She learned how he had a massive appetite and could be rather naïve most of the time. But she also learned how much he cared for those close to him, how he would give everything in his power and more to protect the ones he loved.

It made her proud that her life was traded for someone who could do something with theirs.

That day that she had watched him stumble around blindly, the sight was so entertaining, she forgot herself for a moment and reached forwards with the intentions to shove him lightly. It had stunned her that she actually had. She had felt his warm skin under her palm and he had felt it too. She had been filled with hope and excitement when he turned around and _saw _her. It only lasted for a second before he had spun around and looked in every direction like she had disappeared but that one second gave her hope.

Since then it had only gotten better. She would play a game with Luffy, seeing how long she could get him to follow her for until he would suddenly stop seeing her again.

She didn't understand why he could only see her sometimes and not all the time but standing here, staring into his eyes as they stared back at hers. She realized that those moments were getting progressively longer though she didn't know why. What was changing?

Luffy reached forwards and tried to grab her hand only to have it pass through.

"But how did you push me? I felt you then."

She looked at him blankly and it took him a second to realize that she couldn't really answer that question. Just as he opened his mouth to reword the question she vanished, taking the calming scent of roses with her.

"Wait! Don't go yet!" He exclaimed, still having many other questions for her.

She stood in front of him, not having moved and sighed silently. He couldn't see her any more. She didn't feel too discouraged, already anticipating the next time he would see her.

Luffy headed back to Rayleigh with a big grin on his face.

The next time Luffy saw her was a few days later while Rayleigh and him were cooking their dinner over a fire. The sun had gone down not long ago but Luffy'd be able to recognize the girl even in pitch black.

She appeared sitting right next to him, her knees pulled up to her chest, her shoulder almost touching his. It startled him that she appeared so suddenly and he jumped a little. His sudden movement brought Rayleigh's and the girl's attention to him. The girl grinned at him when she saw he was looking at her, happy that he could see her again.

"Luffy? Are you alright?" Rayleigh asked confused by Luffy's behavior. Luffy looked over at him and then back at the girl.

Rayleigh couldn't see her?

Luffy simply nodded and looked at the fire. He could feel her looking at him and he leaned slightly towards her, letting her know that he still knew that she was there.

The girl smiled calmly staring into the fire as well and enjoying the quiet. It wasn't often things were like this with Luffy around. She found herself wishing she could feel the warmth of that fire. She looked down at her palm, remembering the warmth of Luffy's skin on hers. Could she somehow do that again?

She glanced at Luffy from the corner of her eye. She focused on the feelings that she had experienced the last time. Happiness, joy, fun. And before she could chicken out she leaned her shoulder against his.

And she felt it.

They both let out a short gasp.

So many things happened so quickly, she experienced a sensory overload. Suddenly she could feel _everything _the constant numbness had vanished, she could feel the heat of the fire, the ground beneath her, Luffy's shoulder pressed against hers, the light wind in the night air. It hit her so quickly she jumped away from Luffy breaking the contact and the rush of sensations disappeared.

Luffy experienced a similar awareness. Colours, to him, seemed so much more vibrant, even in the dark. Scents were stronger, his skin tinkled as if its sensitivity had heightened. But just as quickly as it had started it ended and Luffy could no longer feel the girl's warmth against him.

He glanced her way again. Her eyes were wide and she was holding her shoulder. She must have felt something as well. However, she vanished before he could ask.

"Luffy, you seem distracted. Are you sure everything is alright?" Luffy blinked at Rayleigh, almost forgetting that the older pirate was there.

"Oh…yeah." Luffy mumbled uncharacteristically.

Rayleigh sighed and leaned forwards to rest his arms on his knees. "It's about her isn't it?"

Luffy and the girl both looked up in unison. Rayleigh seemed to take this as hitting the nail on the head and he smiled lightly at Luffy's bewildered look.

"It's just…" Luffy started after a moment. "I didn't even know her name."

The girls shocked look transferred over to Luffy. If she thought about it, that was true. She never got to tell him her name, but she didn't think it would bother him that much.

An idea struck her suddenly and she grinned mischievously.

A week later, Luffy really started getting worried.

He hadn't seen the girl for the entire week, not even a glimpse. He wouldn't hesitate to admit that he missed her. He had gotten used to the feeling of her always being there, even when he couldn't see her.

It had been a long week without her and in that time, Rayleigh had left him to continue his training on his own. He had a year and a half to become stronger before he could go and see his crew again. Luffy had sent out a message to his crew of this through the newspaper and he was positive that they had gotten it.

So he busied himself with his training, focusing on getting stronger and stronger. But there was still that constant worry. Where had the girl gone? Was she only able to stay for a limited time? Would he ever see her again? He certainly hoped so.

Luffy shook his head and cracked his knuckles, bringing his attention back to the giant black rabbit in front of him. "This time I'll win." He said determinedly, reminded of all the fights he had with his brothers back on his home island. The rabbit seemed to look at him smugly and Luffy grinned.

He loved a challenge.

Another week passed and still, there had not been any sign of the marine girl.

Luffy was being chased by a giant lion. He jumped over fallen logs and dodged around trees before he broke through the dense forest and into a clearing. Grinning, Luffy skidded to a halt and spun around just as the lion reached the clearing. Pulling his fist back he concentrated in coating his arm in haki, grinning more when his skin turned a shiny black. The lion leapt at him and Luffy's fist shot forwards with amazing speeds and slammed into the lions jaw, knocking it back, crashing into the forest.

"Yosh! I did it!"

The sound of excited clapping took Luffy off guard and he looked to his left to see the marine girl standing at the edge of the clearing, grinning widely. Luffy smiled and ran over to her quickly. "There you are! Where have you been?" He asked happy to see his friend again after what felt like forever. Luffy remembered that she could only answer with yes or no so he shook his head, dismissing his question. "I'm glad you're okay. I was worried!"

She seemed to not expect this comment and her cheeks turned pink. Awkwardly she scuffed her bare toes on the ground. She then looked back up at him with eagerness in her eyes. He tilted his head, trying to figure out why she seemed so excited. "What is it?"

Luffy was surprised when she opened her mouth to speak but was even more surprised when she actually did. Her voice was smooth and soothing, making his heart feel warm. But it was what she said that really took him off guard.

"Ren. My name is Ren. It's nice to meet you Monkey D. Luffy."

**So, that's all for now folks! Sorry for any errors, I appreciate it when people point them out to me, it makes me a better writer. I'll update again when I finish exams! Thanks for sticking with this story and all my other ones everyone! I'm sorry it's been so long! I've missed writing so much!**

**Until next time!**


	5. Possession

**Guess who's not dead! This author! That's right everyone! Okay, so. Wow it's been awhile. A few people have probably lost hope in most of my stories ever being updated, hopefully this will reassure you that I am not giving up. I love writing these but I simply haven't had time. I know some of you were hoping to get the release of Falling Into Chaos but I'm going to get my other stories updated and on their way before I publish that one. To be honest, I'm kinda dealing with a little bit of writer's bloke on it... but it'll hopefully be gone soon. Man I've missed this, sorry it took way WAY long! I hope you enjoy regardless of my tardiness.**

Chapter 5

Possession

Her voice had a hollow echo laced within it, sounding surreal and far away. But she spoke. He _heard _her. It took Luffy a moment to process the fact that for the first time since the war he heard her voice. It took him another moment to finally understand what exactly she had said. He smiled impossibly wide and threw his hands up in the air. "You can talk! I heard you! How did you do that?"

Luffy's excitement was contagious and Ren found herself smiling so much her cheeks hurt. She felt bad for not seeing him for the past two weeks but she wanted to surprise him. Ren had kept to the edge of her allowable distance from him in order to try and figure out why she couldn't speak and how she could emend that. After a few days of just thinking and trying to make something happen she became frustrated and in a bought of anger, lashed out to punch a tree. Of course she half expected her hand to fly through the tree, having gotten used to not having to walk around or step over things but rather just pass through them, and was a bit startled when the rough bark dug into her knuckles. She had quickly pulled her hand back and shook it, instinctively hissing and mumbling 'ouch' to herself. Ren had to double take when she realized that she had heard herself say that small word.

She discovered two things that day. The first was that she could indeed speak. The discovery gave her a new determination and she began to start off small trying to hum songs she remembered from her childhood. After that she moved on to words and sentences. Ren found that it was like she had to retrain her vocal chords to learn how to make sounds again, it was incredibly difficult but with each new syllable she became more excited.

The other discovery she learned that day was that she could feel pain. This greatly confused her because she was dead wasn't she? The dead can't feel pain. But the slight sting from the tree bark was there, it wasn't her imagination. However, she decided to worry about one thing at a time and put it to the back of her mind.

Despite the guilt of not seeing the boy she was quickly considering her friend, when she spoke to him, the absolute happiness in his eyes was worth the wait.

"I practiced." She said slowly and clearly trying to keep her voice from dropping out.

"This is awesome! I got worried when I couldn't see you anymore." Luffy admitted, not giving her any time to register the warm feeling in her stomach, he continued. "Ren." He said her name slowly as if testing how it sounded on his tongue. Seeming satisfied he reached his hand out to her. "It's nice to meet you too."

Ren regarded his hand hesitantly and Luffy, seeing this, suddenly remembered that she couldn't touch him. Just as he started to pull his hand back she reached forward and to both of their surprise Ren's hand slid into Luffy's smoothly. He was reminded of when she had placed her hand on his back, her hand was cold but not unpleasantly so.

Ren suddenly felt everything again. Much like when they were sitting by the fire two weeks ago, she could feel as if she was a living being, she felt the weight of gravity, something that she didn't even think to miss. It was overwhelming and wonderful. She looked at Luffy carefully taking in the way his eyes seemed to roam around as if seeing something she couldn't.

"Do you feel it too?" She asked, noticing that her voice sounded normal, like it had when she was alive, rather than the distant echo.

Luffy looked back at her and nodded. "Everything is strange… like I can see more clearly. My skin feels all tingly." He lifted up other hand and turned it around, inspecting it. "It feels weird. Is that what you feel?"

Ren shook her head. "I feel…" She paused searching for the right word for it. "…alive. It's easier to speak now too. I can feel the ground." She wriggled her toes in the grass loving the sensation. They looked at their hands, still holding onto the others. Ren didn't want to let go.

"I wish I knew what was going on." Ren sighed.

Luffy took her in for a moment. The girl in front of him should be dead. Is dead. And yet she is standing there where he can see hear, feel her and hear her. The theory that she was a ghost was the only thing they had to go on to explain this phenomenon and that wasn't even a sold theory. Luffy hummed starting to get a headache from thinking too much. "You're a mystery ghost." He stated simply.

The blunt random declaration caused Ren to burst out laughing at his statements ridiculousness and the fact that it was probably the only thing that made sense.

Luffy suddenly remembered something. A question that he had been longing to ask this marine girl. And now he could. "Why did you do it?"

Ren stopped laughing and looked at him with confusion. "Do what?"

"Why did you die to save me and Ace?" Luffy rephrased, wanting to know. How could someone throw away their life for someone they didn't even know.

Ren considered the question, remembering Luffy asking her the same thing as she died. She thought carefully about how to answer. "I had a bad feeling since the beginning of the war. Like something was going to go horribly wrong. I can't really explain it but… when I saw Akainu move to attack you, and Ace seconds away from jumping in between I just…" Ren went quiet for a moment. "I've never had a family. I've never had anyone who would break into the worst prison in the world and then not even hesitate to barge through a war for me."

Luffy watched silently as Ren looked down at the ground, he held her hand a little tighter. She looked up at him with a light smile. "But hey, I seem to remember a question I asked you that I haven't gotten an answer to yet."

Now it was Luffy's turn to be confused. "What question?"

Ren opened her mouth to answer but stopped herself. She died trying to get an answer to that question but now… it didn't seem to matter.

* * *

Another week later, Luffy and Ren had become good friends. They talked to each other as often as they could which was becoming more common due to Ren not vanishing as much. Luffy wasn't able to hear her when he couldn't see her but he was able to see her more often than not now. Neither of the two were really sure why that was but they decided not to worry about it.

That wasn't the only change over that week however. Ren was able to touch Luffy now without any problems, again they weren't sure why, but they each still experienced the strange sensations as the first few times. Ren did still have trouble making contact with other things and had begun to train herself alongside Luffy. She wanted to be able to control whatever it was that was going on with her, even if she couldn't understand it.

She also found that in times where she felt intense emotions she would be able to feel things, though not as clearly as when she touched Luffy.

By the time a month rolled past, Ren was able to pick up and move objects about the size of a baseball with relative ease. She was also able to be seen by Luffy constantly and they started experimenting with how far Ren could get from Luffy before she popped up beside him again and as far as they could tell fifty feet or so seemed to be the constant limit and it wasn't going to change anytime soon.

Quite by accident the two discovered something else while training one day.

Ren sat cross legged on the ground, four rocks of increasing sizes lay out in front of her. Taking a deep breath and focusing on the rock, she tuned out the battle between Luffy and a giant gorilla going on in the clearing next to her. Ren reached out and placed her hand on the rock, trying not to get to excited when she felt its cool hard surface on the palm of her hand. Wrapping her fingers around it she lifted it up and was happy that it stayed in her hand. After tossing it up and down and from hand to hand she set that rock down then moved on to the one that was twice its size.

It wasn't until Ren got to the fourth rock that she was interrupted. Just as she began to concentrate extra hard to lift the largest rock, Ren felt a body slam into her side. Everything seemed to occur in slow motion. The moment Luffy slammed into her she felt a tingling in her stomach and her vision went black for a second. There was a free falling sensation and then she slammed into something which she could only guess was a tree trunk.

Here's where it got weird. She felt the slight pain in her back but it wasn't nearly as bad as it should have been and then she found herself standing up without telling her body too. Ren felt disoriented and out of place.

Luffy stumbled as he stood feeling kind of odd. He took a pretty strong hit from the gorilla and was thrown towards Ren… Luffy looked around trying to spot his ghost friend. Was she okay? He hoped he hadn't hurt her. Could she get hurt? He shook his head and then realized that his senses were heightened, like when he touched Ren. But why was this happening now? He wasn't in physical contact with Ren. He didn't even know where she was!

_'__Luffy__…__?__'_

"Ah! Ren! Where are you?" Luffy asked hearing her voice and spinning his head around, trying to find her. "Did you disappear again?"

_'__I don__'__t know__… __I__'__m not sure where I am.__'_

"I can't see you. Are you okay?"

_'__I think__… __oh.__'_ Ren paused suddenly realizing why she seemed to be looking around franticly. _'__Luffy, stop moving for a second.__'_ Luffy did as she asked, only confirming her suspicions. _'__Okay uh, wow this is just weird.__'_

Luffy tilted his head. "What's weird? How come I can hear you but not see you? That hasn't happened before."

_'__None of this has happened before. Luffy, I think I__'__m possessing you.__'_

"Po-what?" Luffy asked. Movement out of the corner of his eye drew his attention. The gorilla was charging at him, obviously not through with their fight. Luffy went to raise his fists to fight at the same time Ren instinctively raised her arms to protect herself. Ren's action seemed to win over and Luffy found his arms moving of their own accord, coming up in front of his face, palms facing away from him. He didn't even have time to be confused when the gorillas fist came down to pound him into the ground.

But… it didn't.

The beasts giant fist stopped a good five feet from Luffy's head by something that he couldn't see. As the gorilla's attack bounced away sending the creature sprawling, Luffy watched in awe as the air around him seemed to glow an unearthly blue before it vanished, along with the hyper sensations.

Confusion over took him as he stood staring at his hands, unsure of exactly what just happened.

"L-Luffy…" A week voice caused him to turn around, just in time to catch Ren as her knees seemed to give out.

"Ren! Ren, what's wrong?" He asked in worry. His throat went dry, realizing that the way he caught her was the same way he held her when she died. Quickly, he shifted her around so she was sitting on the ground with one of his arms behind her shoulders keeping her upright.

He didn't even notice that even though he was touching her, the hyper senses weren't back.

"Hurt…" She mumbled out.

"Hurt? Hurt where?" Luffy inspected her looking for where her injury was, he quickly became frustrated when he didn't see any immediate problem.

Ren placed her hand over the middle of her chest, just at the base of her neck. She didn't know what had happened. She had just put her hands up for protection, she hadn't expected Luffy's hands to mimic the action. Ren certainly didn't expect to feel a surge of energy rush from her then feel like she was being punched in the heart. The next thing she knew she was standing behind Luffy and her chest burned white hot.

She felt like she was dying all over again.

But then the pain began to fade slightly and she reassured Luffy that she just needed a moment. After a few minutes the pain was gone completely and Ren took a deep shaky breath, more to calm herself then out of the necessity to breath. That's when Luffy's sight changed again and he blinked a few times to adjust. Ren could now feel the ground beneath her as well.

Seeing her seeming to recover, Luffy helped her stand slowly. "I think that's enough training for one day."

After that day Luffy and Ren came to the firm conclusion that she had indeed been possessing him. This made Ren feel incredibly guilty. The fact that she had forced Luffy to do something, no matter how small it was, against his will made her feel horrible. Luffy had told her one night that he wanted to be the Pirate King because he would have the most freedom in the sea. It hurt her to think that even for a second she took some of that freedom away. When she began to apologize Luffy simply told her that it wasn't her fault, that it was an accident and admittedly it was pretty cool how she created a force field around him.

Luffy actually told her it was okay if she possessed him while she trained, knowing that this was a new 'power' and it could be useful in battle. Ren was hesitant at first but agreed that it could help in the future to be able to protect someone quickly in a desperate situation. However, Ren made the ground rule that she would not take control of Luffy's body. His free will would stay his.

What she was worried about was the excruciating pain that had coursed through her when the shield had been hit by the gorilla. So as they trained they made sure to practice where there was no danger and agreed that they should only use the shield in desperate times where it is unavoidable, even still Luffy didn't feel right about his new friend using this power if it hurt her so badly.

From there their training continued. Days turned to weeks and weeks to months and before they knew it there was only a few hours left before Luffy and ultimately Ren set sail for Sabaody.

They both had come extremely far from where they started. Luffy now had full control over all three types of haki, his injury had completely healed over leaving a large X shaped scar in its place.

Ren could now easily move any sized objects and she had figured out that while possessing Luffy, she didn't need to have control over his body to create a 'force field' as Luffy called it. She could also travel places while still having a connection to him and if he closed his eyes he could see what she was seeing. This allowed her to scout ahead and show Luffy what was coming. It was a neat trick and Luffy found it extremely fun to use. He was constantly plotting how he could use this to sneak into the fridge on his ship and keep look out for Sanji at the same time.

They sat around the last campfire they would have on this island in comfortable silence when a thought occurred to Ren.

"You probably won't be able to talk to me so openly when the Kuja Pirates and the Whitebeard Pirates show up."

Luffy pouted. "Eh? Why not?"

"They likely won't be able to see me, so if you're talking to air then they'll think you're crazy."

"Ah, okay." We settled into silence again but it was quickly broken by Luffy. "Oh! I forgot to ask you officially!" Luffy exclaimed as if he couldn't believe he forgot such a thing. "Will you join my crew Ren?" The young pirate captain grinned at her and just as it always did, it made her smile as well.

"Of course!" She exclaimed happily and laughed as Luffy began to dance around shouting about how he had a ghost _and _a skeleton on his crew now. Ren didn't bother ruining the moment by telling him that even if she didn't want to she'd still have to go with him. But really, who wouldn't want to join this boy on his adventures? She found it amusing that in life, she was a Marine, fighting for a cause she didn't believe in, and in afterlife she was a pirate. Free. It was funny how things worked.

She was excited and nervous to be back in civilization again. She had gotten so used to being able to be seen by and be able to touch Luffy that it was going to be strange when no one else could. She pretty much forgot she was a ghost throughout the year and a half on this island. Then there was the matter of the crew. They wouldn't be able to see her either. Would they still except her on the crew? Would they even believe that she existed?

Watching Luffy hop around and rant about how excited he was, Ren just smiled and sighed. They'd cross that bridge when they got to it. Right now, she was happy.

**Super sorry if this seemed rushed in any way, I have to get use to writing again, I'm a little rusty. Constructive criticism is always helpful! I'm not afraid to redo the whole chapter if it just plan sucks. Thanks for reading (if I still have any readers out there) and thanks for being so patient! I'll be updating Sail's in the Sky next. **

**Until next time!**

**-Ang3l**


	6. Bets, Crews, and Worry

**OH. MY. GOD. This is the longest chapter I've ever written and I was super surprised at how easy it was to write it! I keep coming up with ideas for this story and I can't wait for you angels to read them! I'm not going to blabber too much so without further delay! Enjoy!**

Chapter 6

Bets, Crews and Worry

"Luffy!"

Luffy and Ren both looked up in excitement hearing a voice calling. Luffy recognized the voice as Margaret and he grinned.

It was time to go.

They made one quick stop to pick up Luffy's hat, which he had left waiting for two years. He had put his dreams on hold for a while, but now, with a new nakama by his side he was ready to set out. As they walked to the Kuja's ship, Luffy reveled in the comfort of having his hat back on his head where it belonged. He could barely contain his excitement at the prospect of seeing his nakama again. He had missed them so much.

"Ah, aren't we gonna wait for Ace and the others?" Luffy asked as they left the forest and the large all female pirate crew waved and cheered from the waiting ship, which he returned happily.

Margaret smiled at him. "Your brother and Rayleigh are going to meet us at Sabaody to see you and your crew off." She explained. Luffy grinned and nodded, beginning to head towards the ship. However, when he noticed that a certain girl was not beside him he turned to look back towards the forest. Ren stood just at the edge of the tree line looking up at the ship and its crew in wonder. It was strange to her. Why had it taken her dying to make her see that she had been fighting for the wrong side her whole life? No… that didn't seem right. Despite the corruption that hide throughout the World Government, she didn't think it was as black and white as saying one side was good and the other bad. But still how come she just now discovered how amazing these people really were?

"Oi! Are you coming Ren?" Luffy's voice broke her from her thoughts and she looked back at him with a grin. Her grin dropped quickly though, when she looked just past her new captain to see Margaret staring at his back in confusion, the blonde's eyes then roamed the tree line, obviously trying and failing to see who Luffy was addressing. Ren face palmed.

"Luffy! You aren't supposed to talk to me with other people around remember? Margaret can't see me. You look like you're talking to air right now." Ren explained once again.

Luffy blinked at her then looked over at Margaret and back at her. He bopped his fist into his hand. "I get it." He said before laughing and boarding the ship, leaving an exasperated Ren and a very confused Margaret behind.

Instead of running after him, Ren just sighed and put a hand on her hip, waiting. A few seconds later, her vision blurred. When it refocused she was standing beside Luffy on the deck, facing the pirate empress Boa Hancock. Sometimes the distance thing could be handy. Luffy smiled at her, which she returned. To everyone else it simply looked like he was smiling at the Kuja pirates who stood behind Ren.

"Luffy~! It's been so long! How did you're training go?"

"Great! I'm really strong now." Luffy exclaimed throwing his hands in the air for emphasis. This made Hancock swoon and Ren had to suppress a laugh, even if she knew the empress couldn't hear her. She wasn't about to throw her manners out the window just yet.

The crew set sail and after a while, Luffy started becoming twitchy. He had all this energy and excitement and nowhere to put it. Luffy decided to ask Ren if she would play a game of cards with him and she eagerly accepted, also becoming rather bored. Because of Ren's insisting that it was better if everyone didn't question Luffy's sanity, they managed to find a supply room to play in without having to worry about the crew gawking at floating playing cards.

After a few games, even that became dull. Before the two knew it they were playing a strange but fun game of hide and seek. Due to the limit of distance Ren could travel from him, Luffy quickly got the idea that he just needed to get far enough away from her so she would snap back and pop up beside him. It also made it more entertaining for Ren because she could do the same thing when she was 'It'. The game became sort of reversed as the seeker tried to get as far from the person who was hiding as they could, while the hider tried to keep hidden but also keep close to the seeker.

It was even better because Luffy couldn't cheat and use Observation Haki. Ren didn't know why but she apparently she couldn't be sensed through haki. She didn't worry about it too much, just adding it to the long list of other questions without answers.

The game had become so entertaining that Luffy and Ren just didn't care what the crew thought of Luffy running back and forth on the ship and hiding behind crates, barrels and sometimes even the girls. When one of them asked him why he was running around, he simply grinned and explained that he was playing a game, before taking off again. The all-girl crew just chalked it up to Luffy's childish nature trying to keep himself entertained until he got back to his own crew.

For Ren it was a good way to keep her stealth skills in practice in case she would ever need them.

A few days later Luffy and Ren were on deck with the majority of the crew, a small silhouette peaking over the horizon.

"That's Sabaody Archipelago in the distance." Hancock said. "Luffy, we have to say goodbye here. We can't let them discover our relationship." Ren raised her brow at the odd word choice there.

Luffy just nodded. "Uh-huh."

Hancock held up a fake nose and mustache towards Luffy. "Put this on." Ren barked out a laugh before she could stop herself and she was slightly impressed that Luffy didn't react at all. They had practiced having Luffy ignore her when they were around people during their time on the ship and he had gotten better at it but there were still moments that someone would look at him oddly. The practice pretty much entitled Luffy sitting on deck and trying to act normal while Ren bounced around and made faces in front of the crew, even occasionally walking through them. Ren would even poke at Luffy while he was talking to someone, trying to make him laugh or acknowledge her. The first couple times Luffy would laugh out loud for no apparent reason or spin around and yell "Stop poking me" in the middle of a conversation. But all in all he didn't do too badly.

Ren had to admit, it was a lot of fun messing with people.

"I don't need that!" Luffy laughed as well at the silly disguise. "That's too much!"

"Yeah?" Hancock said sounding way too serious. "But in case something happens…"

With a slight shake of his head Luffy took the disguise from her and stuck it in his pants pocket as she pulled the hood of his cloak down more to conceal his face.

"You have to be careful. Make sure you hide your face. The world thinks you're dead but people know what you look like from two years ago. If you cause trouble you won't be able to set sail."

Luffy nodded. "I got it."

"And in the backpack, I put fifty extra changes of clothes, 1000 lunches, handkerchiefs and tissues, five years' worth of towels, three years' worth of water and snacks, silverware, toothbrushes, soap…" And the list went on and on as Ren looked at the massive backpack with shock. How had she even had a bag that big?

Ren shook her head in amusement as Hancock was forced to take a whole bunch of stuff out to make the bag lighter. "Man she's really got it bad for you."

Luffy tilted his head slightly at her comment but didn't say anything. Ren didn't need him too to tell that he was confused by what she said. This took her completely off guard.

"You're kidding me." Ren deadpanned, only to get a blank stare in return. "Wow. Is it even possible for someone to be that oblivious?" She wondered to herself. Luffy pouted and crossed his arms, making Ren laugh.

Hancock, mistaking his pout for disapproval of her removing food from the backpack, quickly jumped to reassure him that she could send him the things later. Luffy just waved this off, telling her it was fine.

When the bag was light enough for Luffy to carry comfortably, he thanked the Kuja's for everything they had done for him.

Margaret smiled at him. "Good luck!"

Another woman who Luffy hadn't told Ren the name of also smiled. "I've heard Sabaody has become unsafe these days."

"Yes. That's why the Navy is paying a lot of attention to what goes on there." A little old woman explained.

Luffy nodded. "Yeah, I'll be careful."

Ren almost scoffed at that. Even if he tried to be careful, trouble always seemed to find him anyway. Luffy turned and began to head to the small boat they were lending him to get to the island and Ren skipped ahead cheerfully, excited to meet the crew that had turned the world upside down. It was hard for Luffy not to grin and watch her skip by, jumping down into the dingy.

Before he could jump down with her, Hancock was suddenly in front of him. "Could you do me a favor?" She asked looking away with a blush.

"What? I'm not gonna marry you." Was Luffy's immediate reply. The young captain pretended not to hear the confused exclamation from below.

"No, I just want you to leave without saying goodbye."

"Oh, I've never said it to anyone. I wanna see you again."

Ren was trying so hard not to laugh. Did Luffy even know how charming he was being? Ren didn't blame Hancock one bit for almost passing out right there. Luffy seemed to have it all going for him. He was seriously good looking and while he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed he had this innocence about him, even after everything he's been though. He was honest and was straight to the point.

He liked to keep things simple and Ren really admired that about him. She had gotten to know Luffy over the last two years but she wasn't naïve enough to say that she was closer to him then his crew. It wasn't the amount of time you spent with someone but the experiences you shared that defined a relationship. Ren and Luffy had shared laughs and tears and they helped each other grow stronger but it was _nothing _compared to the bond that him and his crew shared. Ren didn't need to meet them to know that they were more than a crew, they were a family.

She felt strange now that she thought about being a Straw Hat. It felt like she was intruding on something she had no right to be a part of.

"Alright, I'm off! See ya!"

Luffy's shout shocked Ren out of her thoughts and she realized that they had set off already.

The Kuja ship drifted further and further away, shrinking into the distance as time passed. Ren moved to sit beside Luffy and took a moment to take everything in. The sun glinted off the water and Ren found herself wanting to feel the sea breeze through her hair. Her eyes slid over to her companion. Luffy was stretched out, hat tilted over his eyes, his hands behind his head and his back resting against the edge of the boat. She couldn't find it in herself to disturb him. He looked peaceful.

So instead she tilted her head back and looked up at the big blue sky above her. Two seagulls flew overhead, squawking and crowing at each other. She watched as they spun around each other and she breathed out an airy laugh. This caught Luffy's attention and he shifted his hat back out of his eyes to look at her. "What?" He wondered.

"They look like they're dancing." Ren said with a small smile. Luffy's eyes stayed on his friend for a moment before following her gaze to see the seagulls. He watched them circle around and found that Ren was right, they did look like they were dancing. "Have you ever danced before Luffy?" Ren asked siting up and pulling her knees to her chest.

Luffy smiled. "Yeah! We have parties all the time on the Sunny."

Ren chuckled and shook her head. "I mean like slow dancing, with a partner." She clarified.

Luffy thought for a moment before answering that he hadn't. "Have you?" He asked back.

"Yeah, my dad taught me how."

"Can you show me?"

The question took her off guard and she found herself blinking owlishly at her friend. "You want to learn how to slow dance?" It wasn't really something that she had expected him to be interested in.

Luffy nodded eagerly. "Then I could dance with you and Zoro and Chopper and everyone else!"

"Well, I don't know if they'd really like that."

Luffy tilted his head cutely to the side. "Why?"

Grinning, Ren stood up and grabbed her captains hand, pulling him up with her. She paused briefly to enjoy the salty breeze that she could now feel through her hair. "Because," She started, positioning him so one of his hands was on her waist and his other was clasped in hers. Her hand rested lightly on his shoulder. "You'd have to hold them like this." She looked up at the confused look on the boy's face. "Or like this." Ren took his hands and moving them to rest on her hips before wrapping her arms around his neck and lacing her fingers behind his head.

Luffy agreed that he would probably get punched in the face if he ever tried to hold Zoro like this. Somehow it didn't seem as appealing when he thought of holding any of his other crew members like he was currently holding Ren.

She and Luffy had taken to holding hands quite often so they could both experience things better, both loving the enhanced senses they received from contact with each other. It had almost become a habit now, whenever they're hands weren't doing something they'd be clasped together.

The weight and warmth of his hands on her hips made her think of what would happen when they got to his ship. He was the only one that could touch her, from what she knew, and he'd have to do so less often until they eased the crew into the idea of a ghost crew member. She wasn't sure if she could survive that. She felt selfish to have to rely on Luffy this much.

When she was in the marines she had been very independent and she only relied on herself so she wasn't used to having to _need _someone as much as she felt she needed Luffy. Especially for something as silly as human contact, which Ren was now realizing she had taken for granted in life.

It hurt a little bit to think that she needed Luffy but he didn't really need her. She had nothing of absolute necessity to offer the crew, while she had excelled in recon in the marines and she was sure she'd be even better now considering, would the Straw Hats really need that? She knew about Nico Robin's Devil Fruit abilities. They didn't need a spy.

She felt useless.

Ren mentally shook the thoughts away before they could go down a dark road. She wasn't going back to _those_ kind of thoughts, she had changed. If she was feeling useless then she would make herself _useful. _She'd earn her right on Luffy's crew.

She brought herself out of her thoughts when Luffy's grip tightened slightly on her waist. He had a light frown and a worried look in his eyes that did not belong there. "Are you okay?"

Ren realized she must have spaced out for a bit. "Yeah, sorry just thinking." She whispered, just now realizing how close they really were. She fought the blush that warmed her cheeks.

"You're gonna get sick if you keep doing that."

Ren couldn't stop the laugh if she tried.

* * *

It didn't take too much longer to reach Sabaody and Ren made sure to adjust Luffy's cloak after he slipped the still quite large bag of supplies onto his back.

Luffy had made her promise to teach him how to dance when they got a chance.

She found herself looking forward to it.

It would be an adventure in and of itself.

"So," Ren started looking at the buildings and people walking about. She had never been to Sabaody herself but she heard a lot about it around the base. "Where were you supposed to meet your crew?"

Luffy hummed. "We're supposed to meet at the Sunny. Rayleigh gave me this so I could find him." He said as he pulled out a vivre card. A loud grumble sounded and Luffy put his hand on his stomach with a pout.

Ren snickered. "You should get something to eat, then we can find your crew. I guess it's a good thing Hancock gave you all of this." She gestured to the bag. Luffy grinned again, liking how she understood the importance of meat.

"But you can't eat here," She looked around at the people milling about. "Someone might recognize you. Would you like me to scout?" She asked. Luffy nodded with a grin. He couldn't help thinking how useful this ability would be in the future. While he did have observation haki, that only let him search out people, not environments.

Ren placed her hand on Luffy's arm and he exhaled, relaxing his muscles. A tingling ran through his body and when he opened his eyes he was no longer looking at the people walking around but rather he was seeing a bird's eye view of the archipelago. They had discovered after the first few tries of this that Ren had a much wider travel distance while scouting. She could also travel very fast as well as pass through walls and doors, allowing Luffy to see inside buildings.

So it took only a few seconds for Ren to find a secluded place for Luffy to eat without worrying about being caught.

She committed the quickest route there to memory, knowing Luffy wouldn't, before she closed her eyes and felt herself reappear beside her captain. Luffy had a huge grin on his face loving how he felt like he was flying when they did this.

The two walked along quietly, each lost in their own thoughts. Ren led the way to the spot that was shaded by the giant roots of the stripped trees. Luffy wasted no time in ripping open the bag and beginning to munch on the wide array of meats, fruits and vegetables, throwing his hood off in the process.

"Hey Luffy?" Ren asked after a while. Luffy lifted his head up, not pausing in devouring his meal. "How are you going to tell the crew about me?"

"A wesh 'ust gon te mem."

"And you think they'll believe you?"

"O' curs, mey're ma hrew!"

Ren shook her head, amused by the fact that she could actually understand him. Well, she had spent the last two years by his side, she did pick up a few things.

"How about we make it a little bit more interesting?" She grinned evilly. Luffy swallowed the food in his mouth and gave her his full attention. "How about a bet?"

"What kind of bet?"

"You have to try to prove to your crew that I exist and I have to try and make them think that you're crazy. Whoever does so first before the next island the crew reaches wins."

Luffy thought about this for a moment. It's not like it could do any damage. If the crew thought he was crazy it would only be until they reached the next island before they could both prove to them that he wasn't. Luffy grinned. "What do I get when I win?"

Ren was taken aback before her shocked look molded into a smirk. "Someone's confident." Luffy's grin widened. "If you win I'll take over your chores around the ship for a month."

Luffy narrowed his eyes at her. "Including watch?"

"Yes, including watch." She sighed. That was no big deal, she didn't sleep to begin with so might as well put it to use.

The raven haired boy stuck out his hand eagerly to her, smiling like an idiot. "Deal!"

Ren raised a finger and waved it at him. "Uh, uh, uh. But if _I _win you can't eat meat for one whole day."

Luffy's hand dropped as he gasped dramatically. Ren figured one day without meat was enough, any longer and she feared he might actually get sick or something. One day would be more than enough torture. Her captain went quiet for a moment before a determined looked passed his features.

They shook hands.

"Deal."

* * *

Luffy had put a significant dent in the bag and it was much smaller and easier for him to carry. He once again wore his hood up to cover his face as the two walked, Ren tried her best not to walk through people. It threw her off slightly when she would accidentally pass through someone she didn't notice.

It was also just polite not to, she assumed.

Luffy was staring down at the vivre card in his hand when his backpack accidentally clipped someone, knocking them over. Hearing the thump of a body hitting the ground the pair turned to look at the large man wearing clothes that were way to small on him. The red vest he wore had no hope of closing around his large stomach and his jean shorts looked about ready to rip.

Ren raised a brow at the slightly familiar clothing style. She also took notice of the sudden change in the air as people suddenly went very quiet around them. _Well that__'__s odd._

There were also a small group of people around the large one that were rather lacking in the looks department. Normally she didn't like to judge but these people were… she's not even sure there's an accurate word for it.

Her captain simply looked down at the man who was glaring up at him. "Ah, did I hit you? Sorry." And they continued on their way.

Or at least they tried. They didn't make it more than four steps before there was a gun pushed against Luffy's left temple. Ren simply just sighed and folded her arms, annoyed by the slight delay. She could tell by the glint in her friend's eyes that he was annoyed too. He had apologized hadn't he? What'd this guy want now?

Apparently the answer to that was for Luffy to beg for forgiveness or some such thing. Ren tried really hard not to tap her foot in irritation. The man continued to spout ridiculous nonsense and even went so far as to rest his elbow on the top of Luffy's head, waving his gun around in a casual manor.

Huffing Ren finally had enough of this idiot. Unseen by everyone except Luffy she reached forwards and grabbed the man's wrist of the hand that held the gun. With a quick motion she snapped it backwards, a sickening crack being drowned out by his shout of pain. The gun clattered to the ground. Before he could recover she swung her foot up and delivered a swift but strong kick to the side of his face and he collapsed in a heap.

Luffy kept his expression blank as the people around them gasped and murmured wondering what the hell had just happened. Did the boy with the backpack do something?

The rest of the big guy's friends seemed to think so and wasted no time in diving towards Luffy to take him down. Ren and Luffy simply resumed walking much to the shock of the watching crowd. Just before the attackers reached them, Luffy let out a short, controlled blast of haki, effectively knocking them all out in a second, leaving the onlookers unharmed.

When they had put enough distance between them and the stunned people, Luffy pouted at Ren. "Hancock said not to draw attention to ourselves." He reminded her.

"No, she said for _you _not to draw attention to _yourself_. She never said I couldn't."

"But she can't see you, how would she know to tell you not too?"

Ren blinked a few times before lightly punching the boy in the shoulder. "Hey. Stop making sense. You're Luffy, you're not supposed to make sense."

Luffy snickered. "Sorry."

Ren smiled too.

"Ah, but your balance is off." Ren hummed in confusion, looking over at her friend. Seeing her expression, he clarified. "During that kick."

Ren thought about that for a moment. It made sense. Coming out of the attack was a bit sloppy. She still had a lot of training to do it seemed. She hadn't been much of a hand to hand fighter before the war but she learned a lot from the training Rayleigh gave Luffy, though some things were a bit too advanced for her and Luffy had been helping her get better.

It had taken her awhile to get used to Luffy's teaching style. He wasn't good at explaining things so he would just show her how to do it and she would fill in the blanks. It took her by surprised sometimes when he pointed out things like that though. He was pretty observant.

She put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at him. "What did I just say?"

Luffy just laughed.

"You'll have to show me when we get to your ship." Ren looked around, trying to get an idea of where they were. "How far do you think it is?"

Her captain pulled out the vivre card once more and they both paused for a moment to look at it. The small paper inched its way across his palm and slightly to the right. They both looked up in that direction. "Well, guess we're going that way."

* * *

Ren looked out over the huge crowd of pirates and marines that were currently involved in a rough battle bellow them. She crossed an arm and rested her cheek on her fist wondering how they had even gotten in such a situation so quickly. In retrospect she shouldn't be too surprised, giving that they had decided to follow the Sanji and Zoro imposters.

In her defense she hadn't known they were impostors. There had seemed to be something off with them but she had never met them in person so she couldn't really tell. She had honestly felt relief when they turned out to be fake. They did not seem like the type of people Luffy would ask to join his crew.

It all just kind of fell into place after that. The guy that they ran into earlier turned out to be a fake Luffy who had put out a notice saying that the Straw Hat pirates were recruiting and turns out all these pirates had been accepted into the crew. The situation only escalated when the navy showed up with pasifista's and took control of the situation. It was revealed that the guy with the broken wrist was fake and that the real Straw Hat Luffy was there.

So there the two stood, currently Luffy being the center of attention. However, after a bad ass display of power from Luffy to take down a pastifista, he took her hand in his and they bolted out of the area. The marines, of course, weren't going to give up that easily and they pursued.

Luffy didn't have his cloak now, it having been thrown off during the action, and Ren realized that they should probably get to the ship before anything else went wrong.

Not that much else could really go wrong at this point.

"Hey, Luffy!" A voice called in front of them. They looked up to see a green haired man with three swords and a blonde wearing a suit running towards them.

The absolute happiness that radiated off of Luffy caused Ren to grin herself. These must be Sanji and Roronoa Zoro, cook and swordsman of Luffy's crew. She had heard a lot about them!

"Luffy! This was you after all! How can you already be in trouble?" The blonde yelled grinning. Despite the situation (running away from a giant killing robot) Ren suddenly felt like she was intruding on a personal moment between the friends. But Luffy still had his hand wrapped securely around hers so it's not like she could give them space or anything.

"There's no mistaking it this time! I really missed you guys!"

Ren felt tears fill her eyes. Luffy had been through so much during the war. They both had. His decision to postpone his crews meeting for two years had been hard but it had been the right one. Still though, she was so _happy_ that Luffy could finally see his friends again.

When Zoro and Sanji leaped over them to attack the pasifista, Luffy turned back to look at her and was surprised to see her crying. He skidded to a halt and turned to her with wide eyes. "Oi! Ren, what's wrong?"

To his astonishment she laughed and rubbed the tears away. Well, she tried to. Every time she did more took their place. "I'm just happy." She said, laughing at her own ridiculousness.

Luffy blinked for a moment before he started laughing too.

"Come on Luffy! The others are waiting at the ship!" Sanji said as he and Zoro ran past him to take the lead. Luffy nodded and followed after. Ren wasted no time in joining them.

"It's been so long!" Luffy remarked. "I wonder how everyone's doing? I'm so happy!"

I could tell that he wasn't the only one. Zoro and Sanji seemed to have an amused and proud air about them.

Luffy skidded to a stop again and turned to his left. His three crew mates noticed his abrupt halt and stopped as well.

"Oi, Luffy…"

"Hey, what's wrong?"

When they noticed who was sitting on a nearby hill they all smiled. Luffy thanked Rayleigh for everything he had done for him and the man just laughed telling him to be on his way.

Just before he left, Luffy took a deep breath.

"I will become the Pirate King!" he proclaimed.

Ren looked at her friend, amazed. She had never heard him exclaim his dream with so much conviction before. Of course she knew what his dream was and of course she knew that it was almost a catch phrase to the young pirate but in the two years she had spent with him he had never said those words. She had been beginning to think that the marines were exaggerating about it but the way he said it just now shoved those thoughts from her mind. Vaguely she wondered why he had waited until now to say it but she just grinned when she realized she already knew the answer to that.

* * *

With the help of some very large and colourful birds, the four of them, plus Cotton Candy lover Chopper, they made it too the ship in no time.

Happy waves and cheers were shared before they even landed on the deck. Ren respectfully stepped back to the edge of the deck, giving the crew space to reunite once more. She watched as Cat Burglar Nami gave Luffy a big hug the moment his feet hit the deck and she was quickly followed by a long nosed boy who she guessed was Usopp.

She looked around at the other crew members, checking them off in her head from the wanted posters and Luffy's stories about them.

Robin, Franky, Brook, Zoro, Sanji, Chopper, Usopp, Nami and Luffy.

And now, she supposed, Ren.

_Was this her new family? _

She shook her head.

_No. I have to earn that remember? But maybe for now__… __they could be my friends. _

Ren looked over at the one person she knew wasn't on the crew and watched him closely. Ace was basically doing the same thing she was, giving the crew space by leaning against a railing nearby. He had a smile on his face as he watched his brother interact with the crew.

Ren smiled sadly. She couldn't help thinking back to the war and how desperate he had looked when Akainu attacked Luffy. She had died for two amazing people. It was something that she would never regret doing.

So what if she was dead?

Dead meant no more loneliness, no more pain, no more terror or sadness or regrets.

She watched the people in front of her and how despite all that was going on, all the questions and happy exclamations that were being passed around, and just all of the _joy, _Luffy would still glance her way and give her a big smile every chance he got. It made her stomach flip in a strange way.

Being dead also meant no more happiness, no more laughter, no more family or friends or nakama.

_And yet__…_

She laughed as Ace was quickly drawn into the clump of joyful nakama, despite his polite declination.

_It seems__…_

She watched as the elder brother disappeared underneath a pile of bodies, accidently being dragged into the group hug that Luffy had instigated. Laughter rang out along with 'I missed you' and 'It's been so long'.

_Just maybe__…_

The smile on Luffy's face was brighter then she'd ever seen it before and a warmth spread through her like a raging fire.

_Just maybe she wasn__'__t as dead as she thought._

* * *

The party didn't officially start until they had the ship a safe distance from Sabaody

There were drinks and laughter and singing and food. It was like nothing she'd seen before. Marine's didn't party. They didn't have time. She knew what a party was of course but she'd never partook in one until now.

It was amazing.

She laughed and danced around, even though she knew Luffy was the only one who could see her, the smile on his face as he watched her spin around until she got too dizzy to stand was enough for her not to care.

Even Ace looked as though he belongs on this crew with the way he got along with everyone. He was probably used to parties like this on a much larger scale on the Moby Dick.

Her heart ached for a moment, wondering how Ace was holding up. The death of Whitebeard would have been hard on him.

He was still smiling. That's all that mattered for now.

It was actually after the party, which had gone on longer then she thought a party could, reaching late into the night, that Luffy decided to make his first attempt at winning the bet.

"We have a new crewmember!"

Ren wasn't at all surprised by his direct approach.

The crew however, was.

They had all simply been milling about talking to each other, catching up after being away so long. Stories were being swapped as they all drank in the familiarity of being with their nakama again.

Ren found it surprising that no one had a hangover with how much they had drank just hours before. The swordsman was _still_ sipping away at another mug of sake!

The deck had been cleaned and the crew was beginning to wind down for the night, discussing who would have the first watch.

But when Luffy had suddenly turned to them, hands in the air and proclaimed the addition of another member so out of the blue, it took them a moment to comprehend.

"W-What did you say Luffy?" Usopp stuttered, not really sure if he heard his friend right.

"We have a new crewmember!" He repeated with no less enthusiasm.

It still took a pregnant pause (which Ren was impressed Luffy was so patient during) for the thought to finally sink in but when it did Usopp and Chopper grinned and started cheering. Franky struck a pose and exclaimed how SUPER it would be to have another nakama, while Brook 'Yo-ho-ho'd cheerfully. Nami sighed and slapped a hand to her forehead mumbling to herself about spontaneous idiot's, though a small grin adorned her face. The others seemed rather indifferent about the news.

"Who'd you get to join Luffy?" Chopper asked.

"Ah! Her name's Ren!"

"It's a girl!?" Was Sanji's immediate reply before he was lost in his love cook ways, blood dripping from his nose as his imagination went wild.

Luffy simply laughed at this. "Yeah! She saved Ace and I in the war! Remember Ace?" He asked turning to his brother.

Ace tensed under the sudden attention and he took a moment to take in his kid brother before answering. "Luffy… You don't mean_ that _girl…" He didn't need to clarify anymore, there was only one girl that associated with the war on a noteworthy scale to them. Ace bit his tongue. The girl had died. They both watched her die. Maybe Rayleigh was right, maybe her death and the shock of coming so close to losing each other had taken a harder toll on his brother then they realized.

The nod he received worried him more then he thought it would.

Robin's gaze lingered on the Whitebeard pirate for a moment but no one else seemed to notice Ace's stress. "Well! If she helped you guys out, I think we'd all love to meet her." Usopp grinned but it quickly turned into a confused frown as he looked around the deck. "But we left port hours ago, where is she?"

They all looked forward to thanking the girl for watching out for Luffy when they couldn't, something they were all deeply ashamed about.

Luffy opened his mouth to answer when he suddenly winced and grabbed his head, slouching over and muttering out a small 'ouch' that was drowned out by Chopper's worried voice. "Luffy! Are you okay? Where does it hurt?" The tiny doctor ran over to inspect his friend.

Luffy waved his hand dismissively and pouted, eyes shifting to his left. Little did the crew know, Ren was standing beside him with her hands on her hips. "Idiot, don't make it too easy. I'm gonna win at this rate!" It took the boy a moment to understand what she meant before he straightened up and took in his crew's expressions, as well as his brother's tense posture, with wide eyes. Ren was right! They would think he was crazy if he told them anymore! And then he wouldn't be able to eat meat for a whole day! He would have to find a way to show them that Ren was here…

This was going to be harder then he thought.

Everyone watched flabbergasted as Luffy thumped a fist in his hand and proclaimed that he 'would show them for the sake of meat' before he took off below the deck, leaving his bewildered crew in his wake.

Everyone chalked it up to Luffy being Luffy and decided to go get ready for the night but before they could get too far, Ace suddenly spoke up.

"I know I have no authority over this crew but I think it's in everyone's best interest if you called a crew meeting _now._" The seriousness in his tone took everyone off guard.

"Wha- Ace? Why? What's wrong?" Nami asked furrowing her brow.

"We'll talk in the galley." Was all he said, making his way to said room.

The crew traded concerned looks. "A-Alright, I'll just go get Luffy-"

"No." Ace said a little harsher then he meant too, causing a few surprised looks. He relaxed slightly, knowing that he wasn't helping the situation by letting his worry get to him. His need to protect Luffy had become a lot stronger after almost losing him in the war though he had to keep reminding himself that his brother was strong enough to take care of himself. "This is about him. It has to do with the war."

Nami slowly nodded and the rest of the crew followed him into the galley. Just the mention of the war had put them on edge. In the little time they'd been together after the two years it had already become an unspoken rule that they don't mention the war. They didn't want to dig up any unwanted memories for their captain.

Sanji lit up a cigarette. "I'll start making a light snack." He made his way to the kitchen without another word.

When they were all seated, except Sanji who could still be a part of the conversation while he cooked, no one really knew what to say at first. They waited a moment as Ace tried to gather his thoughts.

Finally, Zoro had enough. "What is this about?" He demanded, because if this was about his captain they _needed _to know.

Ace bite his lip, wondering how to go about this. "Something is wrong with Luffy." He started, carefully gauging the others reactions. Understandably it was Chopper who reacted the quickest.

"Is he sick? Is that why he looked like he was in pain?" He started going through every sickness he knew that caused head pains and the best cures for each in his mind but was interrupted by Ace.

"I don't think it's the kind of sickness you're thinking of. It's about that girl he mentioned…"

"Our new crewmember?" Franky asked.

Ace nodded. "Yeah."

Usopp raised a brow. "I thought you said this was about Luffy."

"It is. It's about both of them."

"So what, a girls making Luffy act weird?" Zoro scoffed. "That'll be the day."

Robin giggled from beside the swordsman. "Maybe Captain-san has a crush."

"OW! How SUPER!" Franky exclaimed.

Ace almost gapped at how quickly they had diverted the topic and he had to force himself not to roll his eyes. "Luffy can't have a crush on her."

"Everyone can fall in love! The heart wants what the heart wants! One day I hope to find that special someone that makes my heart beat from my chest! Oh. But I don't have a heart! Yo ho ho ho ho!"

Sanji spoke up from where he was cutting up vegetables for a stew. "Please, that shitty captain doesn't know a thing about women."

And the conversation went on and on before Ace had to repeat himself. "Luffy can't have a crush on her!" He said loudly bringing everyone attention back.

"Why not Fire fist-san?" Robin asked in amusement.

"Because she's dead."

Those three words was all it took for the atmosphere to change completely. No one said a thing for a good amount of time, as they sat stiffly in their seats. So many questions filled their minds but no one seemed to be able to voice any of them.

"Explain." Was all Zoro said.

The Mera Mera user crossed his arms on the table and leaned forwards slightly. "The war…" He started hesitantly. "Isn't really something Luffy or I like to talk about." Ace's fingernails dug into the skin of his arm but he forcibly kept his muscles relaxed. "All the fighting had been too much for Luffy's body. He ended up collapsing. I had let Akainu get to me." He tried to keep the guilt out of his voice. This was something that Ace had never forgiven himself for. Because of his stupidity he had almost lost his little brother. "Akainu saw that Luffy's guard was dropped and aimed an attack at him. It happened so fast, I didn't have time to think, so I jumped in between them."

The crew sat rigidly hanging on every word. They were getting a tiny glimpse of the hell their captain endured two years ago and it terrified them more then they'd like to admit. Most of them had seen how close Ace and Luffy were back in Alabasta and to imagine that Ace could have very well died in Luffy's arms was a horrifying thought. None of them were sure if Luffy would have ever been the same had that happened.

"Then that girl shoved me out of the way. All I remember thinking was that Luffy was dead but then I looked up and… that girl had taken the blow. I'd never seen her before, if she hadn't purposely shoved me I would have just assumed she was in the wrong place, wrong time. I don't know why she helped us, but I am very thankful she did."

Sanji slowly got back to his task, taking his time slicing a mikan Nami had allowed him to use. It was obvious he wasn't paying much attention to his actions, moving almost robotically. "I think we all are." He said, eliciting a chorus of slow nods and hums in agreement.

"But, wait. Why was Luffy talking about her like she's still alive?" Nami wondered.

"Is there any chance at all that she could have survived the attack?" Robin asked.

Ace shook his head. "She took a fist of lava right through her stomach. Luffy had caught her when she collapsed and she said something to him. He wouldn't tell me what it was the few times I asked and we had just gotten out of the war, I didn't want to push him for answers."

They tried not to imagine the morbid scene that was described to them.

"Rayleigh had told me that Luffy was acting strange during his training. Apparently he wouldn't stop talking about this marine girl and how he wanted her on his crew but she kept running away. Rayleigh thinks that the war might have affected Luffy's mentality and after what I just saw, I'm thinking he might be right."

Everyone was quiet, trying to soak in all of this.

"Wait, hold up, she was a marine? Why would she give up her life to save pirates?" The sniper wondered. Ace couldn't give him an answer. None of them could wrap their minds around it.

Seeing they're stricken looks, he smiled sadly. "Look, I don't know for sure, but something is going on. Luffy said her name was Ren, which I am positive he hadn't known when she died. He would have told us when we buried her so we could put her name on the stone. All I ask is that you keep your eyes on him for anything out of the ordinary."

Before anyone could respond, the sound of shattering glass rung through the room, quickly followed by Sanji's swearing.

"Are you alright cook-san?" Robin asked. Sanji poked his head up from behind the counter where he was crouched, picking up the shards from the glass.

"Hai Robin-swan~!" Sanji looked back down at the glass and shook his head in wonder. He could have sworn that the glass had been a safe distance away from the edge of the counter. It wasn't like the ship had jarred or anything either. He certainly hadn't knocked it over.

Ren watched Sanji move to throw out the shards of glass feeling guilty. She hadn't meant to knock the glass off the counter she had just been listening to the conversation and moved to hop up on the counter to sit and hadn't seen it.

She'd have to apologize one day for making him clean it up.

She had followed the crew into the galley after Luffy had run off to who knows where in order to listen in and find out where they stood on the situation so far. She was more pleased then she probably should be to find out that so far they thought, Luffy was losing it. That meant she was closer to winning the bet.

Now she had to plan another way to make Luffy look crazy.

She grinned evilly.

This was going to be fun.

**I could have made this two chapters but I thought "Why not?". Just some plot stuff to mention, they WON'T BE GOING TO FISHMEN ISLAND right away, maybe later but I'm going to start diverting off the canon story from here on. And if you hadn't noticed in this chapter (hard not to though) there will start to be more development on Ren and Luffy's relationship though it won't be super sudden. Don't worry you won't have to wait super long either, they have had two years of being friends after all. Also Sanji won't have his super bad nosebleeds around women because I think it'll just be pointless in this story.**

**I think that's all...**

**I hope you all enjoyed! Thanks for reading!**

**Love to all you angels out there! - Ang3l S0ng**


	7. The Bet is Won

**Yo! Sorry this is a regular sized chapter, but I assure you it'll be a fun one. Please enjoy!**

Chapter 7

The Bet is Won

The crew left the galley that night with a lot on their minds. They were worried about their captain. The tiny glimpse of the war that Ace had shared was terrifying just to hear about but to actually have been there must have been…

They didn't blame Luffy for acting a little strange after going through everything he had but they wanted to help him. They hadn't been able to help him when he _really _needed it but there was nothing to stop them from helping now.

However, it was late in the night and they were all tired. The moon was almost at its peak, shining bright and full above them. No lanterns were needed on the deck as the light of the moon cast a pale glow, bright enough to see by.

One things for sure, they were all going to be watching Luffy like a hawk tomorrow.

Ren watched the crew disappear into their respective rooms, Ace taking Brook's bed for the night as the musician had watch. She stood on the empty deck for a moment twisting her toe awkwardly in the grass. What was she going to do now?

She had a lot of time before the sun would rise and because she didn't sleep, she found herself with nothing to do. Most nights she would've kept an eye on Luffy while he slept, making sure nothing disturbed his rest. But she didn't need to do that here. He had an entire crew of people here who could look after him.

Ren finally decided to take this time to explore the ship. She went from room to room, down every hallway she could find, trying to map out the layout in her mind. The blue eyed girl reached a door on one of the upper decks and forgetting herself for a moment, didn't hesitate to twist the doorknob and swing the door open.

She froze when the navy blue eyes of Nico Robin snapped towards her. For a moment Ren actually believed that the archeologist could see her when she had sat straight up and narrowed her eyes at the now open door. Ren's gaze flicked towards Nami who was fast asleep in her bed.

Robin stood up slowly and moved cautiously towards Ren, her book lying on the desk, forgotten for the moment. The woman stepped outside the room, unknowingly walking right through Ren who had been holding her breath up until this point. She blew out a breath of air when she was sure that the older woman couldn't see her. Robin's gaze searched the deck before she hummed softly and walked back into the room, closing the door behind her.

Ren scratched her head awkwardly as she left. She probably should've looked through the window before she just burst in there. That was very rude of her. "Just because you're dead Ren, doesn't mean you can invade people's privacy." She scolded herself.

From then on her self-given tour consisted of her sticking her head through walls before entering any room to make sure it was okay to do so. She had to smack herself after the fact because she could have just walked through the doors instead of opening them. It would have been a lot quieter, some of these doors were very creaky.

She found herself back on the deck sooner then she would've liked. She had managed to drag out the exploration for about an hour but she had simply run out of new places to discover.

She leaned on the railing and looked out at the ocean. It was so beautiful on nights like this.

Footsteps approached from behind her and she looked over her shoulder at her captain. She sighed. She knew that look. "Nightmare?" She asked gently ushering him to come stand with her.

He nodded and folded his arms on the railing beside her.

They stood quietly, Ren knowing that Luffy would talk when he was ready too. Sure enough, after a few minutes the rubber man spoke. "I watched you die again."

Ren couldn't stop the wince that followed those words. She should've expected it. Luffy's two most recurring nightmares were of Ace taking the blow for him and dying instead and having to relive the memory of her dying in his arms. It wasn't this hard for Luffy when they first started. Ace's death scenario playing out had been the hardest one to calm down after, while Ren's death had been sad, he hadn't known her.

But then she came back and they became friends. And the dreams were so much worse now that he was watching a friend die rather than a stranger.

Ren knew this. She knew why his reactions got worse over time, how he would wake up shaking and struggling to hold back sobs and how he wouldn't go back to sleep until he was positive that she was there beside him. That's the only thing that she felt useful doing, helping him calm down and reassuring him that she wasn't going anywhere.

But, she reminded herself grudgingly, the nightmares wouldn't be so bad if she had just stayed dead.

"It's weird not having you beside me while I sleep." Luffy said quietly, mindful of his musician on watch. Ren could agree with that. She had gotten used to hearing Luffy's snores at night.

Feeling kind of brave, she hesitantly rested her head on his shoulder. She held still for a moment, as if waiting for him to jerk away but when he didn't she relaxed into him.

She couldn't see the smile on Luffy's face. They stayed like that, watching the water and the stars, letting the alluring scene replace the worries and doubts of their minds. Neither of them knew how long they stood like that until Luffy moved away. He took her hand and walked to a spot on the deck just under the crow's nest, where he knew Brook couldn't see him.

Turning to her, he grinned his usual grin and she smiled, happy he had forgotten about the nightmare for now.

"Teach me how to dance."

The request was sudden and took her a moment to understand what he had said.

Ren nodded slowly.

She brought one of his hands up and showed him the proper way to position it, wrapped around hers. Ren didn't need to instruct him where to put his other hand as it fell naturally on her waist. Looking into his eyes as he focused on their hands, she wasn't even sure if he had realized that he had moved his other hand.

"Alright," She started. "Normally the guy leads but because this is your first time, I'll lead." She looked up to his face and had to bit her lip to stop from giggling at the absolutely adorable look of determination on his face. She blinked at her own thoughts. What was she? A school girl?

She spent a good twenty minutes teaching him the very basic steps and she was pleased that by the time they stopped, he could maneuver without tripping over himself too much as they were able to get a very slow dance going.

She couldn't help thinking he would have an easier time with music playing. Dancing was something you felt.

Luffy looked so proud of himself when they danced for a full minute and he didn't stumble once. He still looked down at his feet when he moved but Ren decided to work on that next time. They danced for a little bit longer before Ren insisted that Luffy go and get some sleep.

At first he whined that he wasn't tired anymore but when his complaints were cut off by a big yawn, he gave up and headed back to the cabin. With one final look over his shoulder Luffy smiled softly at her. "Thanks Ren." And he disappeared into the ship.

Ren wasn't really sure what to make of that. It seemed like Luffy was acting differently around her since they had united with the crew. She thought back to the past two years and compared it with the past twenty-four hours. No… Luffy wasn't acting any differently than he had during their training. It could just be that she was confusing the way that Luffy acted around his nakama with the way that she's used to seeing him act. He seemed to put on a mask for his crew, hiding all his worries and fears and bad moods behind a bright smile and a contagious laugh.

It made sense, she supposed. He was the captain and if the captain faltered then the crew could fall apart. He wasn't able to hesitate in dire situations or it could mean everyone's lives. In those cases, the past was a distraction that had to be pushed aside for the sake of the present.

But when they were alone together, like they had just experienced now, he would take off his mask to show her all the things that he was holding back. He was still Luffy, it was impossible for him to be anything else, but he would take these moments to take a breath of fresh air.

They had shared the experience of the war. The smoke and fire and screams and pain. It was all one horrible mess of bad memories that haunted them both. They could relate to each other in this way.

It was then that she dared herself to think that maybe Luffy needed her too. Just a little.

Her heart warmed.

She saved Luffy once and she was determined to do it again.

If that meant being a supporting hand, then she wouldn't hesitate.

The sun just started to rise between the thin stretch where the sky met the ocean. Just behind it a day full of adventure and new memories awaited. Ren sat on the bench that wrapped around the mast, crossing her ankles and swinging her legs like she would do as a child in a chair too tall for her feet to touch the floor.

A door opened and closed somewhere on the ship and Sanji appeared on deck. Ren watched curiously as the blonde lit a cigarette and made his way to the galley. Deciding she didn't have anything better to do, she skipped after him.

When she was inside she leaned her elbows on the counter to get a closer look at what he was doing. He seemed to move about the kitchen with a fluid ease that could only have come from repeating the motions over and over. The cook pulled out ingredients that were the freshest Ren had ever seen on any ship. For the first time since she died she _really _wished that she could eat. The small basket of bright red apples was just teasing her at this point.

But… why exactly couldn't she again? She had never been hungry so she had just assumed that she couldn't eat food.

With a mischievous look she waited until Sanji's back was turned to lean further over and swipe an apple. Before she could fully retract her arm, Sanji turned back and she quickly dropped the fruit as if it had burned her.

She watched Sanji's expression change to one of surprise when the apple rolled across the counter and came to a twirling stop to rest crookedly on its side.

The chef slowly put down the knife he held in his hand (much to her relief) and picked up the apple. His eyes roamed over it then over the counter and came to rest on the basket full of the similar fruits.

Ren could practically see the gears turning in his head as he tried to figure out how the fruit had somehow removed itself from the basket and onto the counter.

Sanji was certainly confused.

It wasn't every day that he turned around to see an apple of all things floating for just a second before falling from midair. His first thought had been Luffy. Obviously the rubber idiot had gotten in while his back was turned and decided to treat himself to a morning snack.

But there were too many things wrong with that picture. First of all, the sun was barely up yet and the cook knew that unless Luffy smelled food (which he hadn't started cooking yet), there was nothing that would get him up _this _early. Second, he would have seen a rubbery limb retracting, leading him straight to the culprit who would then have been promptly 'removed' from the kitchen.

Sanji placed the apple back in the basket giving it one more glance before turning around to turn on the stove. He was reminded of the broken glass from yesterday and couldn't help thinking they had something to do with each other. It felt as if he was missing something but he didn't have all the pieces to get a clear picture.

Ren, seeing him turn around again, didn't waste time and threw her hand forwards. She grabbed the apple and instinctively let herself drop through the floor. This plan seemed foolproof as she landed on the tiled floor of the aquarium room. That is, until she realized that she was no longer holding the apple.

Ren face palmed. She had forgotten that she hadn't figured out a way to turn objects intangible. Well, besides Luffy. For whatever reason she could turn him intangible if she concentrated enough. She didn't even need to possess him to do it!

Sighing, she marched out of the aquarium grumbling to herself. Not only did she have to walk back up to the kitchen (she's a damn ghost, she should be able to fly) but she still hasn't gotten to eat her apple. Ren really wanted that apple…

When she got back to the kitchen, taking a few shortcuts through walls, she noticed that the apple that should have been on the floor was back up on the counter. Sanji must have picked it up. Instead of putting it back in the basket, however, he had set it in the center of the counter and was staring at it with such intensity she thought he was going to pop a blood vessel.

Laughing loudly, she approached the counter.

Sanji had had enough with the stupid apple. He had turned around for just a second and he had heard the offending fruit hitting the wood floor. It took him a moment to find the apple and he was determined to figure out why it kept moving. He was not going to take his eyes off of it. If that meant the crew at a late breakfast, then so be it.

His determination wavered slightly after a while of nothing happening. Taking a puff of his much needed cigarette he couldn't help question himself. He was staring at a fruit. Waiting for it to move. What was wrong with him?

Then an idea struck him. What if it only moved when he wasn't looking? Slowly he turned around, making sure to keep the fruit in the corner of his eye.

Ren laughed even harder as Sanji looked away for a split second then whipped his head back to see if the fruit had moved. This was just too entertaining.

Deciding to play with him a bit, not too worried about the bet anymore (it'd just be cruel to deprive Luffy of meat and if she never slept anyway she might as well be useful on watch), she waited until Sanji sighed and shook his head, sending one last glare at the apple before she gave it a hard flick.

Sanji's eyes widened and he jumped back as the fruit flew off the counter and onto the floor in front of him. Now knowing that he wasn't crazy, he composed himself as much as he could and glared around the galley. "Who's there?" He asked harshly.

Despite his tone, Ren was laughing her butt off. She was cut off by her own yelp as the apple flew passed her head and landed on the other side of the room. Looking back at Sanji she raised a brow. Was she supposed to get that?

Playing along, she picked up the apple and lobbed it back to Sanji, impressed when he caught it gracefully.

Sanji was flabbergasted. Someone was on the Sunny and for whatever reason he couldn't see them.

And here he was playing catch with a possible enemy.

With an apple.

"Alright, I'm only going to ask this once. Who the hell are you and what are you doing on our ship?"

There was no reply. Glaring at the seemingly empty room he opened his mouth to yell again when the galley door opened.

Zoro walked in with a yawn and raised a brow at the cook who seemed to be pissed off about something. "Wake up on the wrong side of the bed ero-cook?" He waited for the inevitable rebuttal but was taken off guard when the cook just stared into the room.

"We've got an intruder." Sanji's words caused Zoro to tense and grab the hilt of his katana, he looked around the room and upon not seeing anyone tapped into his observation haki. That produced no results either.

"I don't see anyone." Zoro pointed out, waiting for Sanji to elaborate.

Sanji readied the apple. "Watch." He swung his arm and tossed the fruit across the room to which it smacked against the wall and broke into pieces.

They were both quiet for a moment, the only sound was Ren's full on guffawing that went unheard by the two men in the room.

Zoro looked seriously unimpressed. "Wow." He said in a monotone voice. "I thought you were against wasting food?"

Sanji's face burned red in a mix of anger and embarrassment. Slowly the crew filed in over the next couple of minutes as Sanji grabbed a cloth and went to clean the apple off the floor and wall, swearing to himself under his breath. Ace and Usopp walked in and Ace blinked at the cook. "Did we miss something?" The fire user asked, addressing Zoro who was seated at the table.

"Nah, idiots just going crazy." The swordsman responded casually.

"Oh. Okay."

The rest of the crew followed in shortly after and all took their seats, engaged in conversations with each other. Luffy walked in and pouted. "Where's the food? Why didn't anyone wake me? You guys didn't eat it all did you!?" The rubber boy slumped into his chair, sending a questioning glance at Ren who was lying on the floor snickering to herself and complaining that 'It hurts! It hurts!'.

"We haven't gotten any food yet, the damn cook was too busy assaulting fruit." Zoro helpfully supplied grinning smugly when it seemed to piss off Sanji even more.

"It wasn't my fault! There's someone on the ship!" He tried to defend himself.

Ren sobered up and sat on the ground next to Luffy's chair, still grinning. She noticed Luffy start to shake and she shook her head.

The rest of the crew looked at their cook with varying degrees of shock. Chopper and Usopp grabbed onto each other in fear, looking about the room. Nami, Robin, and Ace just looked confused, and Franky and Brook were taken aback.

Luffy's shoulders shook harder.

"Oi… Luffy?" Ace asked seeing his little brother unusually quiet. The rooms attention shifted to the young captain, his hat shading his eyes and shaking uncontrolablly.

"Luffy, what's wrong?" No one knew who asked because they were all thinking it.

Ren was still grinning, finally she sighed. "Alright, you win. Now let it out before you explode." She rolled her eyes good naturedly.

Not a second later, Luffy jumped up, knocking over his chair and throwing his arms in the air. "YATTA! I WIN!" He yelled, a huge smile on his face as he hoped around the room like a little kid on a sugar rush.

Ren watched fondly, her only regret was that she had only lasted a day before she caved. Everyone else had jumped at the sudden exclamation and watched the boy with bewilderment.

Brook was the one to calm Luffy enough to answer his question. "What did you win Luffy-san?"

"The bet! That means I don't have to have watch duty for a month! Good thing too, I was worried I'd have to give up meat!" Luffy skipped his way back to Ren's side and picked her up by the arms to stand her on her feet. "Everyone! This is Ren! She's joining the crew!" Her captain introduced, gesturing to her which, to everyone else, was just empty air.

Glances were traded amongst the crew and Nami stood up. "Luffy…" She started walking up to him. "You're really worrying us."

Luffy frowned at the concern in her voice and looked his brother and the rest of his nakama, only to find similar looks of worry. Shaking his head when he realized that he needed a way to show them Ren was here, he looked up in thought.

"Ah!" He exclaimed. Without hesitation, Luffy grabbed his straw hat off his head and plopped it onto Ren's.

**I hope that was as fun to read as it was too write:) Sorry for any mistakes!**

**Love to all you angels!**


	8. Facing Reality

**I know! I'm terrible for making you wait so long! To be honest this chapter gave me some trouble. It might not be what you expect but I hope you still enjoy!**

Chapter 8

Facing Reality

Yet another canon ball slammed into the ocean next to the Sunny, the wave rocking the large ship as if it were simply a child's toy in a bath. Ren marveled at the ease the ocean accommodated the pounding projectiles which narrowly avoiding sending them to discover what lays at its depths.

When she was alive, the ocean amazed her as much as it terrified her. Something so big, so vast, was scary to think about. The ocean was strong and fierce and could be _so very angry_, yet… could also be so gentle and calming and _beautiful_. It hid secrets of explorers and dreamers that couldn't quite make it, lost forever to the oceans encompassing embrace.

It was so alive. But it wasn't.

Kind of like her, she supposed.

_No, _she thought, crouched down behind the counter in the kitchen like a coward. Not strong, or fierce. Not at all like the ocean.

She tried to tell herself she was following captain's orders. That's what crew members should do. Respect their captains wishes. But just the very thought of trying to convince herself that she had any reason other than simply being ridiculous made her stomach churn painfully and her throat feel thick.

In the blink of an eye things had changed so drastically. For everyone. But for different reasons.

_Not long ago_

_Ren blushed crimson. Her face heating up so much she was actually worried that she would get a fever. There were two reasons for this. The first was because of the straw hat sitting on her head. _

_In the two years she had known Luffy he had talked very fondly of this straw hat. Entertaining her with stories of Red Haired Shanks and three brothers living in a forest. She knew it was his treasure. The fact that he trusted her enough to let her wear it__…_

_Gently she reached up and brushed where she assumed the worn edges sat with the tips of her fingers. Her heart ached a bit, being unable to feel it, being unable to feel its weight on her head. She didn__'__t dwell on it._

_The second reason was because of the nine sets of eyes gawking at her. Well, not exactly at her more so at the seemingly floating hat. Still, since she had died she had never had this much attention and it was a bit intimidating. Especially when no one said anything._

_Ren glanced over at Luffy who was grinning proudly with his hands on his hips. _

_"__Luffy.__"_

_Ren__'__s attention was brought back to the others to see who had spoken and became worried when Ace stood up, eyes shadowed by the rim of his orange cowboy hat. Luffy also took on a more serious air as his brother approached him. _

_The tense atmosphere was shattered as quickly as it had come, when Ace pulled Luffy into an enthusiastic hug. __"__Thank god! You__'__re not crazy!__" __The fire user exclaimed in relief. Luffy blinked owlishly over his brother__'__s shoulder a few times before he snickered and hugged him back. It was rare for Ace to give out hugs and Luffy was going to enjoy every second of it. _

_It wasn__'__t necessarily the reaction she had been expecting really. But to be fair, this was the Grand Line. A living skeleton stood adjacent to her. She doubted it__'__d be too difficult to believe in a ghost._

_Ace__'__s words seemed to knock the crew out of their daze and the room exploded with a cacophony of noise, everyone asking questions but not waiting for answers. _

_Ren watched out of the corner of her eye as Ace pulled away from Luffy and ruffled his hair, giving the younger a big smile which was eagerly returned._

_That__'__s when things changed again. _

_The haki users sensed it first and they__'__re reaction was enough to warn the crew seconds before a loud whistle then splash left the boat careening. _

_Ren had plenty of experience on a ship and was well aware of the tell-tale signs of a canon attack. As were the others. _

_No one really moved for a moment, they seemed to be trying to convince themselves to go handle the situation but not wanting to leave the topic at hand so up in the air as it is. Nami, as the logical one she is, was the first to move, looking out one of the galley portholes in search of the enemy. With a simple sigh she looked back at the others, eyes drawn to the unnaturally floating hat immediately but quickly forcing herself to focus. __"__Marines followed us. Understandably.__"_

_Everyone else had mixed reactions. Some simply groaned in annoyance or complained about the bad timing, others grinned eager to show off their new found strength from two years of training._

_For them, it was nothing._

_For her, it was everything. _

_Because the few simple words that the navigator spoke so casually were words that turned her blood to ice, running from her finger tips through her veins and freezing her very soul. Her very core. She felt nothing but cold and so very heavy, arms and legs like lead weights holding her captive to the spot she stood. _

_Luffy had looked to her the moment the words left Nami__'__s mouth. He watched her carefully, reading her like a book. The way she stopped breathing. The way her eyes glossed over and her skin turned pale. The way the life left her like it did so long ago._

_He put a hand on top of the hat and pushed down on it firmly, pushing it further onto her head. __"__Stay here Ren.__" __He said so reassuringly, so calmly and understandingly. Her eyes burned with oncoming tears._

_He turned to the crew and grinned. __"__Yosh! A fight!__" __And with that he was gone. _

_The crew followed not a moment later, all glancing at the anomaly standing still and unmoving as they pass. _

_It wasn__'__t until the room had emptied that she found the lead draining from her limbs and she was hiding behind the counter before she could blink. _

She should have been prepared for this. She had known it was coming. But now it was suddenly so real. She would have to fight marines. People she used to fight alongside she would now have to face off against. The _idea _of fighting the marines seemed so easy. It didn't seem like a big deal. But hearing it, the fighting, and knowing you're no longer on their side, not because they did you wrong. Not because they deserve it. But because _she _betrayed _them_. She was the one that ruined the marines plan to take out Ace. She was the one that questioned their ideals.

Two years on a secluded island was an easy way to forget about the severity of what she had done.

She suddenly felt angry with herself. Her best friend was out fighting to protect his crew. His home. A home that he had offered to share with her. And she was sitting here afraid to come face to face with the choices she had made?

It was pathetic.

She forced herself to stand and looked at the door. The shouts and clangs of battle muffled by the wooden structure.

The war flashed through her mind.

She had made her choice. She chose a pirate, a stranger, over everything she knew. Over her life. She'd be damned if she'd let that choice become tainted by the fear she felt towards facing reality.

Her hand clutched the handle. The slight shake in her wrist and elbow made her grip tighter.

She felt something inside her. Something raw and unbridled.

She opened the door and stepped out.

Had she had all the senses of a living being she was sure she'd be overwhelmed. The amount of bodies that crowded the suddenly small looking ship, compared to the large warships on either side, took her off guard. She'd been in battles at sea many times but none quite so… exciting.

It wasn't hard to pick out the crewmembers. Judging by the unnatural swirls of flames, Ace had already jumped over to the marine ship. On Sunny's deck she could see Chopper, Nami, Brook and Robin fighting the intruders. Franky was at the helm, easily keeping them on course and bashing in marine's heads. It was safe to assume that the others were also on the other ships.

Luffy was easy to find, after taking a deep breath and realizing she didn't need to flinch every time a sword was slashed through her. She made her way to him, wanting to be closer, to feel that comfort he was always able to give her. She still made a habit of dodging attacks that she happened to get in the way of. She wasn't quite sure why, maybe it was the small piece of hope in the back of her mind that thought maybe if she could come back to life she'd need to be prepared. It was a silly idea.

She reached the edge of the Sunny, pressed against the railing she turned to look back at the others. Their unique attacks made it easy to figure out where they were. She felt a swell of pride, as Nami unleashed a powerful wind attack, as Usopp shot the enemies with deadly accuracy, as Chopper kicked and spun as if he were dancing through the steps of kung fu.

But watching the Marines, fighting with everything they had, each individual person. Hurt replaced the pride and she felt guilty, so very guilty. She had used to be one of those individuals. She had used to fight with her all even when it seemed hopeless.

She watched a Marine fly over the edge of the ship, knocked off by a powerful attack from Brook. She swallowed and fought the urge to jump in after him. Once upon a time, that could have been her.

The hat on her head jostled from wind she couldn't feel and she instinctively reached up and grabbed the brim to keep it in place. She paused feeling the rough material under her fingers.

She could feel it. She quickly lifted her other hand and touched it too assuring herself that she was in fact able to feel the precious straw hat that was entrusted to her for the time being. She looked around. Luffy wasn't near her. What did this mean? Why could she feel it suddenly?

She then noticed the lack of confused stares towards the magically floating hat. That was strange. Quickly shaking her head, she made herself focus. Taking a quick breath to steal herself she jumped into the battle, her first against someone other than Luffy.

It was a bit of a surprise at how easy it was. But she assumed it would be, considering they couldn't even see her attacks coming.

She helped in any way she could, covering the others if they needed it, ignoring they're confused and unnerved looks when one of their enemies suddenly went flying back from seemingly nothing.

By the time they cleared the deck the boys had taken down the ships. She watched with mixed feelings as the ocean she admired so much devoured the massive structure.

Luffy jumped down beside her. "Ren?"

He didn't need to say anything else, the concern was evident already. She looked at him for a moment, unsure of what to say to convey her emotions. She settled for a simple nod and a small smile. It seemed to do the trick and Luffy was grinning at her in a second. The sudden mood change pulled a laugh from her and she picked the hat off her head and plopped it on his.

He snickered, pride rushing through him at the girl in front of him as well as the rest of his crew. He had been watching during the fight and they had all grown so much stronger yet they still worked together in a way that only the straw hats could. He wasn't sure if Ren would be ready to face the marines just yet, he hadn't expected her to be with how sudden the attack came along. But he was so proud of her for trying anyway.

After the ship was in the clear and once again sailing towards their goal, the crew lingered on deck a moment. All of them with a thousand similar thoughts but no one knowing where to begin. Usopp was the first to break the silence.

"I'm uh, gonna go check below deck for any damage," And he was off. His words broke everyone else from their stupor, each almost automatically moving to do their usual pass times on the ship. Ren marveled at how easily they got right back into their routines despite being gone for so long. She watched as they busied themselves, their motions practiced and confident but their eyes distracted and absent. A heaviness settled in the air like a blanket over the ship. What should have been warm and comforting was uncomfortable and awkward.

"We'll talk tonight," Luffy's voice made her jump, so lost in thought that she hadn't taken notice to Luffy's uncharacteristic silence that accompanied the crew's. She could only nod and look at him, hating and loving that he could see through her so well.

"Sanji! Food!"

"Yeah yeah! Give me a second you idiot!"

Like magic the air felt lighter already and Ren smiled softly. Leave it to Luffy to solve any problem with a few simple words.

She leaned on the railing and crossed her arms, tucking her hands in the crook of her elbows to pretend like they weren't still shaking. Despite technically being a member of the crew she still felt distant from them. Like she was on the other side of a glass wall, looking, hoping to reach them. She had faith-hope- that in time she would.

Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to start now then? She had time to kill and she didn't feel content with standing here watching. She'd have to meet the crew halfway and get to know them as they got to know her.

So with a goal in mind she set off to find the nearest crew member.

**I am aware that its short but I felt like this needed to be separated from the crews reactions in order to get across the full emotions that the crew are experiencing in the next chapter. I'm starting to type the next one right after I post this. Sorry for the long wait(again) and thank you guys for all your amazing reviews. I try to make this story more then just "Im a marine, now im a pirate!" sort of thing. Hopefully it comes across alright in my writing. Thanks for sticking with me readers! Love you all!**

**~Ang3l S0ng**


	9. Breaking Barriers

**Hello! Sorry this is short, I wanted to give you something at least. A lot of big changes in my life right now, getting ready to go to college so its been pretty hectic. Either way, hope you enjoy!**

Chapter 9

Breaking Barriers

That nearest crew member turned out to be none other than Nami. Well, actually it was Zoro but he was already out cold leaning on the mast of the ship and she didn't think throwing things at him until he woke up would make a good first impression.

So she found herself wandering up to the mikan grove where Nami tended to the long deserted plants, they're branches entangled in an over grown mess. Whoever had looked after the ship had at least had the sense to water the poor things.

She heard Nami tisk quietly as she inspected some snapped branches, probably having been damaged in the fight. The orange haired girl grumbled to herself as she set to work pruning the trees with practiced hands and Ren felt herself admiring how easily and cleanly she worked.

She forgot herself for a moment, having to shake her head to remind herself why she had come up here. But now that she was here, how was she supposed to communicate with her? She faced palmed, cursing herself for not thinking that far ahead.

Nami was barely paying attention to what she was doing. Her thoughts were lost on the revelations that had occurred not an hour ago. Her fingers worked deftly on the branches, pouring out all the love and care these plants have been deprived of in the past two years.

Two years…

Two years that she wasn't with her crew, her nakama. Two years she waited to see them again. Standing here, on the Sunny tending to her mikan trees, she felt more comfortable and relaxed then she had in those two years. The worries about the rest of the crew, the small shred of doubt that she wouldn't get back to them, were gone, leaving her feeling almost serene.

Almost.

Luffy's announcement of having another crew member hit her hard. A part of her, a part that she hated, had hoped that Luffy was just crazy. But Ace's explanation of the situation followed by the ghost's reveal had crushed that to dust.

It wasn't that she hated the idea of having another crew member. She was glad to hear their new companion was a girl, narrowing the ratio between the genders on the ship slightly.

But there was that sliver of distrust. That a marine was on their ship that they knew next to nothing about, that could be a potential enemy, that could be trying to trick them.

A marine that was dead.

A small frown graced her lips. Ace told them she had died saving them in the war. A marine soldier jumped between an admiral and a pirate with the intentions of saving the pirate. It was hard to digest.

There was this girl on their ship that gave up everything to protect their captain. Someone that Luffy is quite obviously fond of given the invitation to the crew. Nami felt herself doubting. The only proof she had seen was a floating hat. They didn't hear her or see her or, judging by how Luffy said she had stuck her hand through her, feel. It was hard to believe something so bizarre without the physical evidence.

Thought, she supposed, this was the Grand Line. She should be used to this by now.

It wasn't that this Ren girl was a ghost that really bothered her either. Sure, it took her some getting used to with Brook but he's as eccentric as the rest of the lot. If they couldn't interact with this girl at all then how could they count on her if they need to? How could they know that she would be there to cover them? She could be standing right next to her and she'd have no way of knowing. That put Nami on edge. If she was someone Luffy trusted, then she was fine with her being on the crew. However, that second hand trust only went so far. Nami needed to know herself what kind of person this Ren girl was and as it stood she didn't have any way of doing that.

_Did she want too though?_

It wasn't the thought that surprised her so much as the feeling that accompanied it. A raw, sour, gross feeling settling for just long enough to make her stomach churn and her heart race in anger.

Jealousy.

Her hands paused in their task, just now realizing she'd been trimming the same branch for the past while, nothing but a small nub left by the trunk of the tree.

She was jealous of Ren.

Nami was jealous of the girl, the stranger, that was _there. _The stranger that had been by her captain's side when he needed someone the most, at the moment where things could have gone so terribly, horribly wrong. She was there when they weren't. When they should have been.

And where was she? Running around on a floating island in the sky with absolutely no clue of the horrors that her captain was facing. The guilt from that was something that she would always live with.

Luffy was always there for them. Always. Yet the one time, the one damn time that he needed them so much, they might as well have been on a different planet. It was just cruel.

She was jealous but she was also thankful. She didn't think she'd ever be able to express how thankful. But if she ever somehow got a moment with Ren, she would try her best to show her.

Ren, unknowing to the navigator's thoughts, was trying to figure out a way to have some kind of intelligent conversation with the orange haired girl. It wasn't looking good. The only thing she could come up with was to move something or even touch her shoulder to let her know she was here but both would be more likely to unnerve or even scare her off. And if she did then what? She'd been through the whole 'yes or no' question conversations and they were pretty one sided.

Besides the only reason those were fun at the beginning was because it was Luffy who was asking the questions.

She sighed, standing here staring at the girl was starting to feel like she was invading her space. Was this how it was going to be from now on? Just… watching from afar? Detached from the crew? How else was she supposed to communicate? She wanted to ask them questions and be able to reply to theirs without a one syllable answer. That's how relationships were formed, friendships, trust! Without communication, then…

Then she was useless to them.

When Nami walked _through _her to move to the other side of the tree she turned and left, trying to ignore the tightness in her chest. Was she going to be stuck speaking through Luffy forever? She didn't think that was fair to either of them.

She headed down onto the main deck and stood there for a moment at a loss of what to do with herself. Eventually she decided to wander again, to explore the ship when it was awake and thriving with the crew. When it wasn't so quiet and peaceful but rather loud and boisterous. She never did find much comfort in silence like some people. She was used to sharing barracks with fellow marines, each with different habits and quirks. Noise was a given, even at night. She was thrilled to find this crew wasn't much different.

Ren stumbled upon the workshop, unlike the other night where the room was silent, the shadows cast by the moonlight too deep, it was flooded with light and noise. Usopp and Franky banging away with tools on machines she couldn't possible guess the uses of. She remembered from Luffy's stories that these two were the inventors of the crew. Franky, if she remembered correctly, was the one who built the Thousand Sunny. That craftsmanship alone was enough to impress her. Yet as she wandered silently, unseen by the two occupants of the room, she felt herself lost in amazement at the trinkets and plans that she couldn't hope to comprehend.

Little did she know that the two crewmembers hadn't spoken a word since entering the workshop. It was uncharacteristically quiet but the dead air around them was barely taken notice of.

"So…" Usopp broke the silence, his voice sounding awfully loud in his own ears, even compared to the banging of his hammer. Franky's head tilting a bit was the only sign that he had heard. "A new crew member huh?"

"Yeah it seems so."

Ren perked up a bit before shifting awkwardly. Should she leave? Now she just felt like she was eavesdropping. She took a small step back with the intention of turning to leave but instead jumped violently as Usopp and Franky suddenly spun around to face each other at the same time.

"WE HAVE A GHOST ON THE CREW!"

To say she was flabbergasted would be an understatement.

This coming from a girl who spent two years with a certain rubber boy.

Franky struck a pose as Usopp jumped up and down in what she hoped was excitement but looked kind of like he had to use the washroom. "A real ghost! SUUUUUPPPPEEEERR!"

"Do you think she's like those ghosts back on Thriller Bark?" Usopp wonders.

"I don't think so, she seems different. We can't see or hear her," Franky pondered.

Ren for her part was just in shock. Were they actually happy to have her? Or were they just curious about her? She couldn't tell. Maybe both?

The self-doubt and loneliness she felt earlier faded a bit and she felt some tension leave her body. She smiled and laugh as the two continued to throw theories back and forth, trying to puzzle out who and what she was. Normally it would bother her to know people were talking about her behind her back, but this seemed harmless.

"Why don't we just ask her?"

Franky's question drew her from her musings and Usopp and her blinked in unison.

"Oh, yeah. But how do we do that?"

"We could ask Straw hat, he said he can talk to her right?"

"Hmm well yeah but do we have to go to Luffy every time we want to talk to her? Isn't that a bit… annoying?" Usopp put a hand on his chin and thought for a moment before snapping his fingers. "I know!" He turned and went to one side of the room, bending at the waist to dig through a large chest of random supplies. "Here!" He pulled out what looked like a flat stone and turned to face Franky.

Ren tipped to the side to try and see it better, curious about what exactly he thought up.

Franky seemed to get it right away and struck another excited pose, making her feel rather idiotic for not getting what apparently was obvious.

"Someone want to fill me in here?" She asked, out of habit and just for the sake of speaking. As she expected they didn't hear her.

The two rushed out of the room, and having nothing better to do, Ren decided to follow.

They stepped out onto the deck and didn't hesitate to head towards the galley. Ren however did pause a moment. The immediate scene to walking out to the deck of a pirate ship was still new to her. An excited warmth flooded through her each time.

When she caught up to the two, they seemed to be badgering Luffy about something. The captain seemed a little put out, having been interrupted from his latest food stealing mission, and was the only one to look over at her as she entered. She smiled and gave a two-finger wave, walking over to the three of them.

He smiled back and looked at Usopp and Franky. "She's right there if you want to talk to her," he informed, promptly pointing in her direction.

Usopp and Franky both looked over, half hoping to see someone there but didn't let the empty space discourage them. Usopp looked between Luffy and the space, not sure which direction to voice his question. "Uh, okay well, we wanted to know if she, ah you," He looked to the empty spot. "Were able to hold onto things?"

Ren nodded before realizing the uselessness of that action and pursed her lips. She looked to Luffy and he snickered at her expression before answering them. "Yeah she can."

Usopp nodded before setting the flat rock on the table and holding out a white stick in her general direction. "Could you try writing something?"

Ren, now able to get a better look at the rock, felt even dumber for not thinking of this before hand. It wasn't an ordinary rock, it was a black slate. She almost ripped the piece of chalk out of his hand, much to his surprise and Luffy's amusement, and hurriedly wrote.

"_Hello!__"_

Franky and Usopp watched in open mouth amazement. It was one thing to know about a ghost, it was another to be able to talk to one.

"Hello," Usopp grinned "Uh, wow, okay, I'm Usopp and this is Franky," he said, feeling introductions were in order.

She smiled and looked at Luffy who was grinning his usual grin. She brushed her last word away with her hand and wrote again.

_"__I know. Luffy told me about you.__"_

Franky and Usopp both laughed. Franky picked Luffy up and crushed him in a bear hug, not that the boy minded at all. "Awe captain, you were talking about us?"

Luffy laughed. "Of course! I told her about everyone and all of our adventures!"

Usopp immediately jumped on that and put a hand on his hip confidently pointing to himself with his thumb. "I see! So you told her all about the great Sniper King Usopp huh?" He grins proudly.

Ren laughs and erases the board.

_"__Sorry, haven__'__t heard much about that__"_

He visibly deflated and hung his head. "So harsh Luffy… how could you?"

Luffy just laughed more.

_"__I guess you__'__ll just have to tell me some time,__"_ She wrote, smiling as all the pride came rushing back into the sniper in mere seconds.

"Ah ha! Of course the great Usopp will tell you his amazing tale of adventure!" He boasted and Ren couldn't help but look down at the slat and smile even more. THIS was the feeling she was missing. This sense of belonging, being included in the conversation. Such a simple fix to what, not five minutes ago, seemed like a mountain of an obstacle.

She had a lot to learn from this crew.

**Just so its clear, there is no LuNa in this. I know, sorry sorry, I love that ship too but in this story its just a deep friendship and respect that they have for each other. I've said it once and I'll say it again a thousand times, thank you for being patient with me, like I said life is crazy right now. As much as I'd love to get a chapter out a week I just don't think I can. But I'll try my best for you guys. **

**Love you all! **

**Until Next Time!**

**-Ang3l**


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